


Flightless

by Icey_TheRicey



Category: Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: AU, Alpha Harley, Beta Happy, Beta May, Beta Pepper, Beta Tony, Bullied Peter, Eventual Smut, Everybody Gets Hugs, Everybody has wings, F/M, Feather Loss, First Time, Fluff and Angst, Graphic injuries, Heats, Irondad, Kissing, M/M, Mild neglect and abuse, Mpreg, Omega Peter, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Packs, Peter is a softie, Poor Peter, Scenting, Slow Burn, Starving Peter, Strong Peter, Swearing, Tags May Change, Wing Grooming, Wing Kink, a/b/o dynamics, independent Peter, ruts, spiderman - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:02:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 10
Words: 33,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25370584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Icey_TheRicey/pseuds/Icey_TheRicey
Summary: Peter wasn't really sure when his whole life started to go to shit, but he would guess that it was around the time that he was going through puberty and his wings grew in. His family had been born and raised in Queens for as long as the family tree could be traced, so it should be no surprise when Peter grew the wings of the most common type of bird in the city, the bullying still hurt though. He had also presented as an Omega, so there truly was nothing special about him.Until there was.(I suck at summaries but I promise it’s worth the read.)
Relationships: Harley Keener & Tony Stark, Harley Keener/Peter Parker, May Parker & Peter Parker, Michelle Jones & Ned Leeds & Peter Parker, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 163
Kudos: 259





	1. Parker Luck

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everybody! Welcome to my first fic on this website! I currently don’t have a beta but I am looking for one and constructive criticism is always welcome! 
> 
> This work was inspired by the work of BL4CkB377Y and CircleUp so you should go and check out their work!
> 
> There is a trigger warning as later on in the fic there are mentions of depression and anxiety, I don’t go into much detail but please inform me if I get any of the symptoms or my information wrong.
> 
> Enjoy!

Things had been difficult for Peter Parker lately, more than usual.

Ever since he had hit the age of 15 and was going through the middle of puberty, it seemed like things just kept getting worse. Normally when a teenage hit the age of 15, everything seemed to click into place and it was a time of great pride and joy for a family. Sadly this could not be said the same for Peter.

When an adolescent hit the age of 15, their wings began to grow in and their instincts grew out of control until they could learn how to handle them better. This was always an exciting time for a family as your social status solely depended on what type of wings you got. Of course, if you were a "purebred" family then this was no issue as it was already known what type of wings you would get and where you would stand in society because all of your family would be of the same breed. After all, your blood was "pure". These families were often in a high social position because of their "purity", no matter if they were a common bird or not a bird of prey.

Peter always wrinkled his nose and flushed with anger whenever this topic of discussion came up with him and his friends. He hated this system and thought it was unfair that people get judged and dragged down in society over something they couldn't control. He always spoke passionately about the subject and picked fights about how inhumane it is and how it's not fair to treat people like this over something they have no choice in. This usually got him a punch in the face, mostly by his _favourite_ person, Eugene "Flash" Thompson.

Flash was a stuck up, idiotic, jerk. He came from a "pure" family of Cassowaries, a dangerous type of flightless bird related to Emus. People were very wary of Flash, not only because of the social power his family held but also because his breed was well known for being wary of other people and attacking out of "defence" if they were even the slightest bit provoked. This information was widely known and Flash often took advantage of it, claiming his instincts were pushing him to defend himself from everybody when in reality it was just an excuse he used to get away with his brutal bullying.

This was not what was making things difficult for Peter, although it did suck.

No, the cause of Peter's problems was the wings that had sprouted from his back during the middle of the night. He didn't even feel them ripping from his back at the time, as his body had released a tidal wave of endorphins to keep him from feeling the pain and allowing himself to heal as he slept on, unaware of the unimaginable pain he would be in if his body didn't release the onslaught of chemicals.

Peter looked around his room and felt vaguely nauseous as he saw the _bloodbath_ of a bed he was sitting on. He could distantly hear his Aunt May shuffling around the kitchen, probably getting herself ready for her long shift at the hospital today. She quite frequently asked for overtime on her shifts at the hospital to try and bring in some extra income for the household, because ever since Uncle Ben had been shot and left for dead on the street, they had been struggling for money and could barely afford to pay the bills and buy food.

Peter shook his head as that thought ended, he had been down that road before and it brought nothing but pain for him and it didn't help anybody, so he pushed it to the back of his mind and focused on the task at hand.

 _'Is there supposed to be this much blood?'_ Peter thought to himself in a panic.

He took a deep breath to try and calm down as he felt his heart rate spike and sweat drip down the back of his neck. He had to calm down, he told himself that he wasn't going to do this again, it would only make Aunt May worry more.

He slowly rolled out of bed, mentally gagging at the almost obscene amount of blood on his bed, and used his headboard to support his legs as they felt weak and shaky, he didn't trust himself not to fall over and cause his Aunt to come running.

He could feel a heavy presence on his back, throwing him off balance and causing him to grip tighter to his headboard, he hadn't gathered the courage to look at the wings he knew would be sprouting out of his shoulders. He stayed there for a few moments heavily breathing before he got his bearings and he could feel the shaking in his legs slowly fading away. 

"Aunt May?" He called out quietly. Peter frowned to himself as he heard his panic tinged voice that had come out barely above a whisper.

He cleared his throat and tried again, "Aunt May?" It came out louder this time but was no less panicked. He mentally scolded himself, she would hear his distress and would get overly worried. 

"Peter?" came the reply, accompanied by quiet footsteps coming towards his bedroom.

"May" he croaked out again, his voice filled with misery and distress.

His bedroom door was gently pushed open, creaking as the gap got wider. His Aunt May appeared in the doorway and her expression changed from worry to horror as she looked at the bed and then to understanding as she finally looked at him.

She smiled widely at him, "Peter! Your wings grew in! Oh, I'm so proud of you!"

He gave her a weak smile that came out more of a grimace. "May," he croaked, "There's so much blood."

May gave him a pitying smile, "Why don't you go into the bathroom and run a bath, I'll bring you a towel and some clothes. You aren't going into school today and I already called the hospital to take the day off while I help you get accustomed to your new instincts and walking around with a heavyweight on you back. I knew your wings would grow in after your birthday but I had forgotten how quickly the process happens. Now shoo, go clean the blood off of those beautiful wings."

He blinked at her, "Aunt May" he whined, his voice still coming out scratchy, "I have a chemistry test I stayed up revising for."

"No, I won't hear it. I am the adult here, I know that you are more than smart enough to make up for the test. Now go have a bath while I clean your bed and bring you some clothes. Then afterwards I will help you identify what breed you are and help you control your new instincts."

Peter just sighed and nodded. There was no arguing with Aunt May when she used that tone.

He shuffled his way to the bathroom, which was just down the hall. He used the wall for support and no matter how much it ached, he twisted his shoulders away from the cream walls, he did not want a tongue lashing from May about getting blood all over her nice walls.

He stumbled into the bathroom, leaving the door open for May to lay down his towels, and plugged up the drain in the bath, running both the hot and cold tap. He poured in some body wash to help breakdown the blood,

"Here Peter, I took one of Ben's old shirts, it has the back buttons so you can slip your wings in without much trouble." She whispered, her eyes adopting a glossy look as tears gathered in her eyes when she remembered the loss of her mate.

Peter was instantly hit with guilt, He remembered that night vividly, Uncle Ben was always forgetting something, so when he called Peter to bring his wallet down to the shop because he had forgotten to take it with him again, it didn't seem like much was out of the ordinary. Peter had been studying at the time and he had been a bit short-tempered with his Uncle when he had to cut the study session short to give him his wallet. He remembered stomping down the stairs and grumbling the whole way.

_"Here Uncle Ben" Peter had grumbled at him, all but throwing the wallet at the poor man._

_Ben just took it in stride, as he always did. "Another study session Pete? Maybe you ought to take a break, all of us know that you will ace those tests without even trying. Why don't you come shopping with me and then we will go for a walk. I miss spending time with you."_

_Peter had felt a bit bad back then for constantly making excuses to not hang out with the man, but not nearly bad enough to stop his moody comments from coming out._

_"I'm busy Uncle Ben. I don't have time for you anymore." Even Peter had winced at the harsh tone he had taken on._

_Uncle Ben, ever the saint, just smiled at him, "That's alright Pete, I know that school is important but don't push yourself too hard. You need to spend some time on yourself too. Why don't you and I try to fix that blasted boiler when I get home? For old times sake?"_

_Peter had just given the man a sharp look, "I'm busy Uncle Ben!"_

_That had made the man falter, his lips had turned down and his eyebrows had pulled together in a frown. "I just miss you, Peter. I'll let you get back home though, I love you." And then he had pulled Peter into a hug._

_Peter had complained and wriggled out of the embrace back then and just turned around and went back home, never knowing that he would regret not holding on and saying it back._

_An hour after he got home there was a knock on the door, he went to open it and found it was a policewoman with a very solemn look on her face._

_"Are you Peter Parker?"_

_"Yes?" he had asked in confusion._

_"Are there any adults at home right now?"_

_"No, my Aunt May took over a friends shift at the hospital and my Uncle Ben is at the shop, he will be back soon though." his face must have betrayed how confused he was feeling because then the lady had looked at him sadly._

_"I am so sorry Peter, your Uncle was a victim of a mugging, he was shot and didn't survive, despite our best efforts. I truly am sorry for your loss."_

_Peter had stopped listening after that and shut the door in the poor woman face. Almost in a trance-like state, he went and sat on the couch, not truly processing what he had been told. He picked up his phone and called his Aunt May._

_"Peter? What's wrong, you never usually call me unless you and Ben have unleashed chaos in our home again." She said, amusement colouring her voice._

_"Ben," He choked out, the information sinking in, "May, Uncle Ben..." He gulped air and suddenly it was hard to breathe. He could feel the tears running down his face, he could hear Aunt May desperately asking questions down the phone, but for the life of him, he couldn't breathe._

_He didn't realise how much time had passed until May was right in front of him, looking every bit distraught as he felt._

_And then May was there, May was his rock and he was May's. All they had now was each other, and it had to be enough. They had shared their grief for months after, heavily feeling his loss. Their home wasn't as bright, as lively or as full of laughter as it had been before. All because Peter hadn't stayed. All because Peter had prioritised himself over others. Never again._

Peter shook himself out of those memories and gathered May in a tight hug, being mindful of the blood all over his back. "I would be honoured to wear what Uncle Ben had." He smiled softly and lay his head on her shoulder, being taller than she was meant that he had to bend down so his brown curls brushed her cheek.

She visibly gathered her composure and gently pushed him away. She gave him a soft smile, "You go and clean up, wash your wings thoroughly. I'll wash your bedsheets and get your breakfast ready, okay?"

He nodded at her and she seemed to relax some. She gave him another smile and left the door, shutting the door quietly behind her.

Peter let out a breath he didn't know he was holding in. He turned and watched the bath slowly fill up, turning off the taps and checking the temperature when it was done. Then he started to remove his clothes, although his T-shirt came off very awkwardly, he had to slip the top of it over his head, then remove his arms from it and then try with all his might to get his wings to slip back through the holes they had made when they first came out. Eventually his managed, he had a lot of difficulties because his wing muscles weren't strong enough to do more than twitch and hold themselves up at the moment.

The moment he stepped into the bath though, he relaxed. He sat himself down, hissing as the hot water stung his sensitive wings. He lay in the bath for a few minutes, just soaking up the heat and relaxation of it before grabbing a cloth and soap and cleaning his body first. When he was finished he gulped and hesitated on his wings, what if he turned out to be something like a raven or a magpie, his family wasn't pure so there was a possibility, and those two breeds have really bad reputations for being in the mob and having high crime rates.

Scowling at his thoughts, he plucked up the courage and gently began washing the blood off his wings, the water quickly turning red. He winced at the feeling of the cloth dragging over his feathers, his wings were still highly sensitive. He stood up and drained the bloody bathwater and turned on the showerhead, letting out a high pitch noise as cold water rained down on him. He ran to the other end of the bath, waiting for the water to heat up. 

When he could see the steam rising off it he stepped under it, sighing as the water seemed to somewhat massage his aching wings. He picked up the cloth again, wincing again at the slight burn of the cloth against his feathers. He could see the upper layer of his wings now, it was a light grey which gave him hope, he wasn't a magpie or a raven! With an elated smile, he returned to washing his wings with added enthusiasm. 

He started washing near his wing joints when he brushes something on his wing that made him groan and his head fall forward onto the wall, he could feel the familiar signs of arousal coursing through his body, but despite being a healthy teenage boy, he had never felt it like this before. Peter shivered quickly and decided to explore that later when his Aunt May wasn't eagerly waiting for him to come out of the shower. With that thought alone he killed any remnants of his arousal and continued to clean his wings.

When he was satisfied with the cleanliness of his wings he rinsed them off one more time before turning off the shower and stepping out. He quickly pats his body down to dry it and roughly scrubbed his head with the towel before gently and lovingly stroking his wings with the towel to remove the excess water. He pulled out any bent or oddly shaped feathers as he went, despite never having done it before, instinct guided him, unconsciously knowing which to remove and which to move.

He swiped the mirror with his towel, removing some of the steam so he could properly see his wings. They looked to be around 7 feet in wingspan, much bigger than Peter's 5"10 height. They had a layer of light grey, small and fluffy feathers that went halfway down his wings with 2 parallel black lines going horizontally across those lighter grey feathers. The other half was made up of much longer dark grey feathers.

He closed his eyes in despair. He knew exactly what type of breed he was. Tears burned his eyes, this was almost being as bad as a magpie, he was going to be teased and bullied mercilessly for this, not that he could control it but he was going to be looked over in every job now, he wasn't anything special. He was just so... common.

"Peter?" The call from Aunt May shocked him out of his spiralling thoughts.

"Just a minute Aunt May, I gotta just get dressed!"

"Okay Pete, your breakfast is on the table and then we will talk."

With a sigh, Peter pulled on his clothes, putting on the shirt last, taking extra care with it. He pulled it over his head, the back of it was wide open, it was able to button up from the wing joints to the bottom, not leaving his back completely exposed.

Peter picked up the clothes and towel he had dumped on the floor and put it in the laundry basket on his way to the kitchen. He sat down at the table without looking at May, afraid that she would reject him just because he wasn't a bird of prey like she was. 

"Peter, look at me."

Peter grimaced and shyly looked through his lashes at his Aunt. He looked into her eyes and she just smiled, radiating acceptance and love.

"Peter," She said softly. "I don't care that you're not some big bad Hen Harrier like me or Honey Buzzard like your mother, you are exactly like your father and your Uncle Ben." At this, she teared up, "Never be ashamed of what you are Peter, it doesn't matter what others think, you are perfect to me."

His head snapped up, tears already brimming in his eyes, "I thought you promised you wouldn't get sappy with me on my presenting day" he joked weakly, letting out a quiet huff of laughter.

Aunt May just rolled her eyes good-naturedly. "Be quiet you, I'm trying to make you feel better."

Peter smiled at her and went around the table to hug her. "I love you, Aunt May, thank you."

She smiled at her and hugged the child she had come to think of her own. "Now go eat your breakfast Pete so I can explain in more detail what's going to happen around you now, trust me you will need the lesson because you're going to start noticing things you've never noticed before."

Peter sat back down at the table and started eating his breakfast, basking in the love and acceptance he could feel coming from his last family member.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Wait," Peter interrupted her, "You mean to tell me that even after I've presented my species, I still need to present my secondary gender?!"

May just sighed, as if she had been trying to get him to understand this for a long time. "Yes Peter, You're either going to be an Alpha, Beta or Omega. I would put my money on Beta, seeing as your parents were both Betas and we normally take on the secondary gender of our parents. Now Alphas have increased strength and enhanced senses, they will go into ruts every 6 months, each lasting a week, the purpose of this is to send their breeding partner, Omegas, into heat so they can conceive a child, although there are suppressants which are very expensive. Omegas on the other hand also have enhanced senses, but they have increased speed and agility, they are typically seen as the weakest gender however they are the most fundamental for our society, as they are the only ones who can calm an enraged Alpha. They go into heats every 3 months, each lasting a week, again to conceive a child. A mated pair will send the other into their breeding cycle. This isn't to be said that Alphas can't be together, or Omegas can't be together. Betas don't have any enhanced abilities, they are just like me and you right now, however you will probably present in about a week and we can take it from there."

Peter sighed and took a deep breath, "That's a lot of information Aunt May, I'm going to go for a walk to process it."

She looked at him in sympathy, "Okay Pete, be safe and be home at 6 O'clock at the very latest, or there will be consequences young man!"

He just laughed at her and pulled on his worn-out jacket, which now had wing slits courtesy of Aunt May, and his ratty converse sneakers he had had for years. He picked up the spare key and walked out just as he heard Aunt May yell out, "I mean it, Pete! If you aren't back by then, Ned can't come over to build your lego death star."

He opened the door again and looked at her scandalised, "You wouldn't May!" 

She narrowed her eyes, challenging him, "I can and I will."

He pouted at her, "Okay okay, I got it. 8 O'clock at the latest yeah?" With the last laugh, he bounced out the door, leaving Aunt May to shout about disobedient and cheeky teenagers.

He bounded out of the apartment complex, waving to his neighbours and catching a dog as it ran past him, returning it to its owner. He smiled sweetly at the owner as he returned the lead. The owner snatched the lead out of his hand and stared down at Peter with contempt. Peter reeled back in surprise.

"Uh, your dog is cute?"

The man just snarled down at Peter, his large golden wings tight against his body. He was a tall man with tan skin, dark chocolate eyes and short, cropped black hair. He was easily 6" and a very intimidating bird of prey to Peters own species, "Don't talk to me you disease!"

The man stalked away and left Peter standing there in shock. Everybody around him looked around guiltily but made no move to comfort or help him as he would have done to them, they just rushed past, ignoring him completely.

That was Peter's first time experiencing the discrimination, but it wouldn't be the last.


	2. Stark Intervention

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just before we start, I just want to thank you all for the supportive comments and kudos. I truly didn't expect to even get one person reading it until the fourth chapter, so thank you all for your support, it's helped to motivate me to continue writing this series! 
> 
> Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter and as always, constructive criticism is welcome.
> 
> TRIGGER WARNING: There are mentions of abuse in this chapter

Harley Keener had always considered himself to be a very tough, very stable person who rarely had an extreme reaction to anything, no matter how bad things got.

This is why he had only glanced and sighed at the new man that his mama had dragged through the house this week. Every week it was somebody new, last week it was Dave, the week before that it was Logan and the week before that it was Cole. Eventually, Harley and his sister had learned to just ignore the new men that came through the door and stop trying to persuade their mama to take better care of herself.

He watched with narrowed eyes as his mama stumbled with the man towards her bedroom. It was only 2 pm, but Harley had learned that something as inconsequential as time wasn't going to stop his mama from getting piss drunk and hooking up with yet another man, clearly she had a problem. Harley desperately wanted to send her to a rehab centre so she could be a better mother to his sister when he would eventually be forced out into the real world but aside from not being able to afford to send her to a rehab centre, he was reluctant to send her too far from Rose Hill until he had gained custody of his sister and could build a better life for them both.

Ever since his father had gone to get that blasted lottery ticket and failed to return, taking control of their bank accounts and draining them, life had been considerably more difficult for the Keener family. They had never been a particularly rich family from the start but now his mama was rarely in the house, either pulling double shifts at the hospital to earn more money she would just use to buy alcohol or hooking up with men to scam them out of their money, which she would also use to buy alcohol and ignoring the bills piling up.

Harley himself couldn't even get a job because while his mama was out somebody needed to stay and look after his younger sister Abby and make sure she was doing her homework and learning as much as you could from the small public school they went to so she could pull herself out of the devastating poverty they found themselves in. 

For a short while, they had been doing alright, Harley was putting the garage full of tech that Tony Stark had given to him to use and he was fixing anything and everything that was brought to him for a price, and as it turns out, people in Rose Hill tended to break a lot of things, so they had a small amount of money coming in. Until one bastard of a man thought he was entitled to everything their family had and sold everything in the garage that wasn't bolted down and ran for it, they had never seen that man again. 

Lost in thought, Harley startled when his mama stumbled out of her bedroom in tears with handprints visible against her pale face. Enraged, Harley abruptly stood, his reddish-brown, 12 and a half feet wings flaring out and knocking a kitchen chair over. He stomped towards her bedroom, ignoring his mama's pleading for him to stop.

He stomped up to the strange man and sneered down at him, his own 6"2 towering over the man's 5"8 height. Harley's chest puffed out as he continued to sneer down at the pathetic _sparrow_ that thought he could bring down their pure family of Harris Hawks. 

"What the fuck do ya think you're doin'?!" He snarled at the man, barely stopping himself from punching the stupid man in the jaw.

"Teaching a bitch her place, something you ought to be wary of, lest I teach you the same lesson" The man had just said it so casually, and this infuriated Haryley so much he was practically frothing at the mouth. Normally he was in control but he had touched something that belongs to him, his family. Harley's alpha instincts were going haywire, blaring in his head that this sparrow was threatening them. 

"Well if we are teachin' people their _places_ then you belong in a fuckin' grave!"

Harley had released a tidal wave of hormones into the air with that statement, screaming that he was on the edge of going feral and could snap and kill this man if he didn't back of. His mama, being an omega, whimpered and removed herself from the doorway where she had been watching the proceedings. This man, however, was a beta and therefore couldn't smell how close Harley was to turning feral.

Harley had only come into his wings 2 years ago but it took a long time to gain steel control over your instincts and had Harley not have had the control over his emotions he did, then this man would have been dead several times over for threatening the hierarchy in their home and trying to take Harley's place as the highest-ranking male in their home.

The sparrow's smug grin dropped and his eyes adopted a steely look to them. His arm became a blur to even Harley's eyes and then all he could feel was the pain that came from being punched square in the face.

"I would watch your mouth boy, or you'll end up a lot worse than your slut of a mother," He spat down at Harley, striding out of the room like he owned the place.

Harley grimaced, it seemed he did now.

* * *

It had been a week since the man, Craig, had taken over their home.

Harley had to push back his murderous rage at the man every second of every day. Craig was superior to him right now, he was stronger, faster and he could fly confidently. Something that Harley had yet to achieve, yes Harley could fly, after a year of building up his wing, back and shoulder muscles, but he was still deathly afraid of catching the wrong air current and plummeting to his death, instincts could only help so much.

So Harley couldn't do anything to kick the man out yet. It turned out that the sparrow had been a flyer for the military and was very adept at hand to hand combat, but he had eventually been dishonourably discharged.

He snorted to himself, _n_ _o bloody wonder._

Craig also lasted far longer than any of the others, he enjoyed the power he had over his still wingless sister and omega mama, he enjoyed the look of panic that overtook Harley's face whenever he started in on his family.

During the week, Craig had tried multiple times to hit his mama and sister in front of Harley. As predicted, Harley distracted the man and took the beating so he would be too tired to try to do it to his mother and sister. 

"Harley," Abby was frowning at him in concern, "ya don't need to take all the hits for us."

His anger surged at the reminder that his sister was only 10 and already she was being subjected to the cruelty of this world.

"Abs, I need to. I won't let ya guys get hurt, I promised ya both that years ago when da left. It won't be forever, I'll get us out of this mess."

That must have been enough of a reassurance to her because he suddenly had a lapful of a sobbing 10-year-old. He gently shooshed her, wrapping his wings around her and slowly rocked her from side to side. 

After about 10 minutes her sobs tapered down into little whimpers which were no less heartbreaking.

"I will always be here for ya Abby, and I swear on my very soul that I'm not going to let anything happen to you or mama, I'll break my wings and render myself flightless before I allow any harm to come to ya." The fierceness and protectiveness even startled Harley but he didn't take back what he said, he meant every word of it.

Abby sat up and rubbed at her eyes with an irritated scowl. 

"Feeling better suga'?"

She mumbled out an affirmative and looked at him with such sad puppy eyes. His own eyes softened.

"C'mon then, I'll take you for some sweet tea and we will drink it down by the crick, alright?"

Abby gave him a sweet smile and immediately jumped up to go pull on her old converse. He rolled his eyes and slowly pulled himself up, pulling on his shoes.

"Hold on darlin' I gotta go get some money okay? Stay right here."

He quickly jogged down the hallway into his own sparsely decorated room and lifted a corner of the mattress where he had managed to hide his savings through the years. He quickly pulled out a few dollars, just enough to buy his sister her favourite sweet tea and maybe a small sweet.

He lay the mattress back down and walked back down the hall, noting that Craig had left his room. With a bit more urgency he turned the corner and he saw red at the scene before him.

Abby was backed into a corner with Craig leering over her.

"OI! BACK THE FUCK OFF OR I SWEAR I WILL BREAK BOTH YOUR FUCKIN' WINGS! WITH MY TEETH!" He stomped over to them, pushing Craig away, who was just looking at Harley with faint amusement.

"Well, what are you gonna do about it, pretty boy?" He leered down at Harley, their faces so close that Harley could smell the alcohol on his breath. 

Harley snarled and fuelled by instinct, he threw all his weight behind a punch to the man's face. Craig stumbled back, tripped over the rug and smashed the back of his head on their hardwood table, knocking him out cold.

Harley grinned savagely. "That man won't be botherin' us anymore."

He looked back at his sister and she seemed fine, a bit shaken but otherwise fine.

"Should have broken his already crooked nose, " she grumbled.

Harley barked out a laugh and snatched a bit of paper off of the counter. He wrote Craig a very threatening letter with a crude drawing under it. He stuck it in the man's pocket and hefted him over his shoulder towards the woods.

And if his grin looked a bit insane, nobody said anything.

* * *

After making sure that Craig wouldn't be coming back, he took Abby into town, buying her sweet tea and walking down to the small creek.

They sat in silence, admiring the scene. He listened to Abby slurp her tea and he finally relaxed. He wished it could be like this all the time, not having to worry about what mood mama was going to be in when she got home, where their next meal would come from or who their mama would bring home next.

_Beep_

Harley frowned and took his battered phone out of his pocket. He grinned when he saw who it was from.

_Old man: You got time to catch up tater tot?_

_Tater Tot: If you can find the energy to keep up old man_

_Old man: Now that's just pure rude, I grace you with my presence and this is how you treat me?_

_Tater Tot: "Grace" is a strong word_

_Old man: Do you need me to fly out there just to kick your ass? Because I will_

_Tater Tot: Well, if you're not gonna collapse halfway, I wouldn't be opposed_

Harley laughed as Tony went on a rant about rude little kids and how they should respect their elders, his passion renewing every time Harley chimed in with a witty comment.

Tony had kept in contact with Harley ever since he had helped him out with the Mandarin. He had never told Tony about his home situation though, always making up excuses or changing the situation. He was the closest thing Harley had ever had to a father figure.

_Old man: Are you going to finally let me tell you what I need to tell you?_

_Tater Tot: I suppose I better let you before you keel over with a heart attack_

_Old man: Can you feel the eye roll? I bet you can_

_Tater Tot: No, all I'm feeling is your old age creeping up on you_

_Old man: That's the only joke you have potato kid? You're gonna have to do better if you want to come intern with me, I can't ruin my reputation by having an unwitty intern_

_Tater Tot: What do you mean intern? I never signed up for an intern program_

_Old man: Yeah I know, this is me telling you to get your ass up to New York and come into your new job, interning for me, non-negotiable_

_Tater Tot: Why me? I live in a whole other state_

_Old man: Yeah but you've wormed your way into my cold, dead heart so I'm having Happy come pick you up in two days_

Harley was too stunned to send more than a quick confirmation. This was it, this was his big break.

He grinned over at his sister, "Guess who just got a job at Stark Industries."

"What!" She shrieked, coming to hug the life out of him, giggling like mad.

He stood up and ran around like mad with her. "This is it, I'm goin' to build a better life for us, this I promise."

She smiled up at him, "Better start packin' then."

* * *

Harley received the next details a day later, basically telling him what time Happy would be coming to get him and what to pack.

His mama was thrilled, the dark bags under her eyes couldn't stop the love and pride for him coming through. Despite her addiction, she was still a great mother.

She continually fussed over him, "You control your instincts you hear? No growlin' at Mr Stark or getting possessive over what ya think your territory contains. There will be a lot more omegas there too, you're going to implement much greater control."

She began to tear up as it finally set in that her little boy was growing up and leaving the nest to make his name in the world, "If ya find a pretty omega, do make sure that you take her home before ya formally bond to her okay?"

He rolled his eyes at this, "Mama, I'm not goin' on some crazy adventure to save an omega from a fire breathin' dragon, I'm goin' to make a name for myself because it's goin' to look good on my resume if I have Tony vouchin' for me."

She nodded and grabbed him in a big hug, dragging Abby along with her. "My babies are growin' up too fast, I'm goin' to miss you. You make sure you call every single night and tell me how it is, if you ever want to come home I'll try my best to come and get you, okay suga'?"

He rolled his eyes to Abby behind her back, "Yes mama." He said dutifully.

"Right, now ya go and pack your bags, Mr Hogan is comin' to get ya very early in the mornin' but I won't be able to see you off, so tonight we are having a movie night, to celebrate."

As the hours passed, Harley grew more nervous and excited. He was going to the big city to work with Tony Stark of all people. His wings shuddered in excitement because of all people Tony had chosen him, and if that wasn't good for the ego, he didn't know what was.

Before Abby went off to bed, he took her to the side in a hug.

"I'm not goin' to be here when ya wake up, but I'll call you everyday and ya tell me if that nasty man comes back and I'll be here in a flash to knock him on his ass again."

She squeezed him tighter, "You're the best big brother anybody could ask for. I love ya, come to visit sometime."

"I'll try to find a way to get ya out of there into a place you deserve, a place where mama can recover and we can be the family we used to be."

She nodded, "That sounds nice." 

"Go to bed darlin' and call me when ya wake up."

She shuffled off to bed and Harley shuffled off to his own but he found he was too excited to sleep.

* * *

In the morning Harley bounded out of bed at 4 am and hopped in the shower. He shuffled to the kitchen and grabbed an apple, eating it as he checked that he had everything.

At 5 am, he heard a loud beep from a car. He pulled back the curtain and saw a car with a grumpy looking man inside.

He grabbed his luggage and paused before the door, "I love ya, mama, I love ya, Abby. Take care of yourselves."

With that, he opened the door and began the next chapter of his life, only time will tell if it was worth the pain getting there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright then! I'm sorry if I got the slang wrong or the accent wrong, I'm from Scotland and I've never heard an American accent outside of TV shows. This chapter wasn't as long as I would have liked it to be but I'm just excited for the next chapter!
> 
> I hope it was worth the wait, and as always constructive criticism is welcome
> 
> Thank you for reading, see you next week!


	3. Learning Curve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I know that I said that updates would take a week at most but I'm riding high on the plot bunny and I have a lot of ideas I need to get down which is why updates are coming every few days rather than every week.
> 
> Once again thank you all for the Kudos and the encouraging comments!  
> The beginnings of the smut start here as Peter finally presents!
> 
> Enjoy!

It had been two days since Peter had experienced his first bout of discrimination.

After that, Peter had been less naive, less innocent to the world, less believing of the good in people. He could see it now, all the pitying, disgusted and plain out offended looks he was receiving from all who were above his "social standing". Though thankfully nobody else came up to him to try and disregard his species, Peter wasn't sure if he would be able to hold in his temper for a second time.

He had sulked all the way home, no longer in the mood to go for a walk. When he lifted his head now and again to check his surroundings, he caught others, namely raptors, looking at him with disgust as if he were not fit to even be in their presence. Refusing to conform to society's expectations, he walked with his head held high, glaring right back at them. They hadn't expected that from such a fragile-looking boy as a few of them had started marching forward with a menacing look, only to be tugged back by another person who was whispering harshly to them.

With smug satisfaction, Peter had continued the rest of the way home in that manner. 

Now, Aunt May deemed him in control enough to start teaching him all about the instincts that he might acquire after his second presentation, she told him about all three secondary genders, just in case. 

His new instincts wouldn't appear until he presented as either an alpha, beta or omega. Something he was sincerely grateful for as he had only just gotten used to the new weight on his back which was making his walk more awkward than it had already been. 

Peter was also grateful for the two weeks he was getting work sent home from school instead of having to go into the building and sit with his peers. The school had said it was necessary as even if he presented as a beta, he would still need that extra week to gain control of his instincts and not start crying or get angry every time he upset an alpha or omega. Juvenile betas were more sensitive to the hormones in the air because their hormones hadn't settled yet but it was something they grew into as they got older and more used to swirl of emotions that constantly surrounded the air.

Truthfully, Peter didn't care about that, he was using these two weeks to prepare for the onslaught of bullying he was sure to get from Flash once he got back to school. He could only hope that he presented as alpha because then at least he would start gaining muscle mass extremely quickly and would be able to defend himself better from the other brute of an alpha. He pitied any omega that got stuck with that wonky-looking face and disgusting attitude. 

Peter shook himself out of his thoughts as he heard the key jiggling in the door and it gave way to his Aunt standing there with six shopping bags at her feet.

"You could have asked me to help you carry them all up the stairs." He grumbled as he hopped off the kitchen chair to grab a bag and place it on the kitchen counter.

"I thought that you would be busy, but I was wrong as you were just sitting there staring into space." She teased, bringing in two more bags.

"Still," he snarked, rolling his eyes, "would have been appreciated if you just asked and didn't force yourself to carry these up the stairs by yourself."

"Peter Benjamin Parker! I'll have you know that regardless of what you may think of me, I am not some helpless old lady just yet!"

"Yet, implying that one day you will be." He teased, giving her a cheeky grin.

He heard the impact of the tea towel on his head before he felt it. He just laughed at her and began helping her unpack while she complained about cheeky teenagers and how she shouldn't be forced to endure this suffering. 

He frowned as he pulled out objects typically meant for an omega.

"Aunt May? Why have you bought a collar?" He questioned, pulling something else out of the bag. He blushed bright red as he read the label. "May!" He whined, "Why did you buy _lube_ of all things!"

He practically heard the eye roll in the sigh she let out.

"That's not even the worst thing I bought, I can guarantee you that some of the things would even have porn stars blushing."

"May!"

"What? There's no need to be embarrassed, it's merely a precaution and if it turns out you don't need it then we can always donate it to the omega shelter."

"I thought you said I would be a beta because all of our family has been!"

"Yes but there's no harm in being extra prepared. Now, I couldn't afford the suppressants so if you do turn out to be an alpha or omega, you're just going to have to ride out your time of the month here okay? I'll be sure to take all the precautions to keep you safe and stop you hooking up with the closest stranger."

Peter groaned, his face flaming. "I'm not having the sex talk with you again May, I know what happens during heats and ruts and I'm well informed on how to keep myself and others safe if it does turn out that I present as an alpha or an omega okay?" 

"Yeah yeah, you're a teenager now, you can do all you own things, you're all mature I get it." She said fondly.

He huffed and faced her. "Aunt May, you know that we can't afford all of this, you should have just let me present first then bought all of the things."

She rolled her eyes again, "I can't because you'll present by either going into heat, rut or simply becoming identifiable as a beta by your hormones. If you did go into heat or rut then I wouldn't be able to leave to get you the things you needed because I would need to stay here to protect you."

Humming in understanding he hugged May, holding her tight and letting her familiar, bland beta scent wash over him.

"Come on then Pete, I'll unpack this later, we need to do some pack bonding."

At this, Peter smiled brightly and bounded over to the couch. He loved pack bonding. It made him feel so much closer to his Aunt as if he could physically feel his connection to her. 

Once his Aunt had sat facing him, he offered his right-wing and she did the same. He meticulously went through every one of her feathers picking out dirt or gently pulling out bent feathers, keeping well away from _that spot_ which would induce pleasure and the right hormones for breeding. He could feel himself relaxing as he lost himself in the familiar motions and the feeling of the tension draining out from his wing.

If you asked Peter where he was right at that moment, he would say heaven.

* * *

Of course, that didn't last, as per Parker luck.

It was only five days later, an exact week after he has grown his wings, that he presented.

He had woken up in the early hours of the morning sweating and with painful abdominal cramps. It took him a while of writhing around in pain and panting in the overwhelming heat before he understood what was happening. _Fucking hell_ he thought to himself, he just couldn't catch a break. Of course, fate had deemed it necessary to cast the Parker luck on him once again and make him an omega on top of everything else.

Whether he groaned at that thought or the sudden arousal that coursed through him he didn't know.

Attempting to get out of bed to wake up his Aunt only resulted in him falling off his bed in a heap of sweaty, tangled bedsheets. He thumped his head off the floor and growled to himself, growling again with frustration when he heard his growl. It wasn't even a stong deep one anymore, it was a high pitched _whine._

He shook his head and started berating himself in his head. _'Come on Parker, you are NOT this weak. You can't allow yourself to be. You have to be strong enough to protect your Aunt and you can't do that if you can't even get off the floor to get help for yourself.'_

Kicking off the blankets he repeated an encouraging speech to himself. _'It's only for four days. Four days and then you can go back to normal.'_ He repeated this to himself as he shakily got to his feet, the sweat dripping down his face. It wasn't the only thing dripping, he realised with mortification. His cock was also steadily leaking precum onto the front of his boxer he had worn to bed and he was too scared to even acknowledge the wetness that was leaking from the rim of his ass.

Sucking up the embarrassment, he leaned heavily on the wall as he made his way to his Aunt's room which was just down the hall. He panted as he finally reached it, he could feel his mind slowly going hazy as he was slipping into what was commonly referred to as the "omega space". This headspace could manifest in several ways but right now it was solely focusing on the pleasure and arousal aspect. 

He knocked loudly but it sounded muffled to his normally sensitive ears. The door was flung open and a very dishevelled and sleepy Aunt May was revealed, although she got her wits about her quickly as she watched her sweaty nephew double over in pain once again.

She turned her sympathetic gaze to him, "Parker luck strikes again huh? Alright, I'm going to get everything you need, you're going to have to ride this out on your own. You're going to be very territorial in a while so you get yourself to bed and I'll get you set up for your four days of isolation."

Then suddenly Peter was back in his bed, still sweaty and whining. He couldn't remember how he got here but he found that it didn't matter as he took in the state of his nest. His inner omega was harping in his ear about it not being good enough to have his alpha in or conceive children in. Then it went strangely quiet as it was reminded that it didn't have an alpha, but no matter, they still needed to have an appropriate nest. 

Looking around the room he whined in happiness as he found plain smelling pillows and blankets they could use to make their nest perfect and cover in their scent. Stripping off his boxers and sleep shirt he picked up the blankets and pillows, quite content to ignore the pain in his abdomen and the slick running down the back of his thighs.

He dumped them on his bed, first rolling all over the new items to get his thick heat smell and slick on it, claiming it as his territory and he would fight anybody who dared try to take it from him. He then pulled off all the items onto the floor and began by placing the five pillows he had in a small circle. His omega humming in displeasure, their alpha wouldn't be so lax, their alpha would get them all they needed to make a big nest. He would make do though, he said to himself as he started to make walls out of the four duvets he had been given. Clicking his tongue again as he realised how small his nest was.

Huffing but knowing there wasn't anything he could do about it he crossed the room again, grabbing the water and protein bars that were lying on the floor, adamantly ignoring the last item. His omega whispering in his ear, _'We wouldn't have to do all this ourselves if we got ourselves a nice strong alpha who could take the pain away and look after us properly. Then we wouldn't even need the last item you left over there either.'_ Whimpering, Peter couldn't help but agree, even though he knew that he wasn't allowed an alpha until he was 16 and therefore legal. 

He lay the food and water on his nightstand before climbing into his nest, purring in contentment at the pride a completed nest brought. He spent a few minutes just rolling around in his nest, getting his scent on it and his bodily fluids. Eventually, the arousal got too much for him to bear and he gave in. He took hold of his cock, only lightly touching it and pumping it slowly at first as he imagined his alpha would, if only to get him all worked up.

He groaned quietly as he applied more pressure and stroked himself faster, his omega helping as it produces fantasies of a faceless alpha pounding into him, letting out possessive growls and marking him as his in every way. Normally Peter would throw a bitchfit about being called somebody's possession but for his alpha, he would be anything and let him do anything he wanted to his body like a good little omega.

He whimpered and started stroking it faster and used his other hand to massage his balls, he could feel the pleasure building and he let out a string of yesses only to dry orgasm, leaving him feeling completely unsatisfied. He choked back tears of frustration.

_'Silly boy, don't you know that you will only get relief if there's something inside of you?'_

Peter sobbed at that and trailed a finger back, just trailing it around the rim and spreading his slick. That alone was enough to nearly send him over the edge again. With the instinct to guide him, he gently pushed a finger in, wincing at the uncomfortable and strange sensation but quickly getting used to it.

He let out a sigh when the finally bottomed out on the one finger and slowly began pumping it in and out. A moan pushed its way from his lips, who knew that it would feel this good!

He went on like that for a while, slowly getting used to one finger, letting out a quiet moan when he bottomed out. He quickly added a second one, using both of them to scissor inside of him and spread himself open, making a mess of the slick. His moans got a little bit louder after that, as he was pressing more against the walls and his omega was making him imagine such dirty things about what his alpha would do. 

Once he got used to two fingers, he pushed in a third and let out a small shriek as it felt so good. He picked up the pace after he had gotten accustomed to it, wet sounds escaping the room. He could feel his pleasure building as his omega suddenly demanded that he curl his fingers. When he did he had the best orgasm of his life, fingers pressing against his prostate he let out a loud and drawn out moan that would make most omegas jealous.

He lay there panting for a while trying to recover his breath. He pulled his fingers out of his hole and wiped the slick and cum onto the duvets that made up his nest. 

However, his biology had other plans as not even two minutes later he was heating up again and he felt his mind slip away further, on the edge of going into that mindless bliss stage of his heat. With a determination, he rolled out of bed and got the last item that he had left on the floor. He picked it up and climbed back into his nest. He was still loose enough that it slid in no problem except for the large knot at the bottom. He started roughly pressing it in and out, letting out gasps and moans as it hit every spot.

He grabbed his wing near the joint with the other hand and roughly began palming it, shuddering when the pleasure doubled. Suddenly the knot of the dildo popped in and he screamed in raw pleasure at being full. It was no surprise when his release came quickly but no less powerful than the last. He lay there panting, not registering the mess he had made nor the powerful smell of fertile omega in heat. 

His body deemed that enough for now as he didn't feel the heat crawling back. He pulled out the dildo with a squelch and put it to the side of his nest, leaning over to grab at the water and protein bars he had been given. Chomping down on those, it wasn't even an hour before his body decided that it was ready to go again.

This was going to be a long four days.

* * *

Peter woke up on the fifth day completely worn out and covered in who knows what.

But, he could feel that all the last remnants of his heat were gone, which was a relief. He frowned when he smelled a lot, a lot of scents, a lot of emotions and a lot of people. He had never been able to smell this much before. Speaking of, he never used to be able to hear the cars outside as well either. He sighed, this would take some getting used to. He hopped out of bed with a speed he never knew he possessed and instantly regretted it as he collapsed to the ground with shaky knees.

He growled, he was getting sick of always being on the floor. 

Sighing and giving up for the moment, he fell asleep on the floor, finding it much more pleasing than he thought.

_'At the feet of your alpha like you should be'_

Was the last thing he heard in his mind before he fell into a deep sleep again, giving his body more time to recover.

* * *

The second time he woke up he felt a lot stronger and more refreshed.

With a noticeable spring in his step, he grabbed the nearest clothes on the floor and bounded off into the shower. After half an hour of thoroughly scrubbing himself with his favourite vanilla and pinecone scent blocker sample body wash and shampoo to remove all the heat scent, he got out of the shower to go and make breakfast.

He immediately noticed the note on the table. His Aunt May couldn't afford to miss any more work and would have to pull double shifts for a couple of months to make up for the week of missed work, meaning she would be leaving early and coming home late. This didn't bother him as he was used to it happening after Ben died but he would still miss her.

He looked in the fridge and wrinkled his nose as the ready-made meals that filled their fridge, his omega screaming about how that would weaken their body and make childbearing difficult. He groaned and held his head, feeling a headache from his screaming other side coming on. 

He tried to placate it by telling it that it was only for now until they could bring in enough money to buy fresh ingredients. It just growled back at him, telling him that if he had an alpha then he would provide everything them and their future children needed. Peter didn't hesitate to promptly tell it to shut up.

He pulled out a lasagne and put it in the microwave, pulling it out and taking ages just smelling it, rubbing it into his omega that he was going to eat whatever the hell he wanted to and it couldn't stop him. His lips quirked up in a smirk as he felt frustration and anger coming from it.

Not wanting to make the headache worse by provoking his omega too much, he ate it quickly and recycled the container. He stood and felt a little lost on what to do, he had already completed all of his school work and May had hidden all his lego a while ago as a punishment to something he couldn't even remember. He couldn't even watch star wars as May had put a pin protected password on all the channels to stop him from watching it at 4 am again.

With a sigh, Peter decided to try and fix that old police radio he had salvaged a while ago with the spare parts he had found in numerous bins around the city he had dove into find things to tinker and mess with. Although he preferred biology and chemistry over the subject of engineering he was still decent at the subject and well past his peers in the subject, winning many science fairs and getting the interest of many college scouts. Much to the annoyance of his life long rival Flash.

He rushed up to his bedroom and pulled out the box of all his projects and pulled out what he needed to take apart the police scanner, getting lost in the zone and not realising how much time passed.

* * *

It was like the world hated him. He was nowhere near ready to go back to school and face everybody but he knew that his two best friends would be worried, even though he texted them every day.

He just was not ready to face the painful truth that he was the lowest anybody could get in society, an omega, a nerd, middle-class and a Columbidae to the boot. This was going to be torture. Yet he couldn't tell Aunt May, she had enough on her plate and if it wasn't him, then it would only be somebody else and that's unacceptable in his eyes. His urge to protect and nurture everybody was way too strong to let it stop.

He sighed as he finished packing his homework, making sure his small lunch was in there too. Well, there was no more stalling.

"Peter! If you don't leave now you're going to be late!" Came the harried call from Aunt May. He sighed, there was well and truly no getting out of it now. He rushed out of the room and steeled himself, no matter what, he was not going to let his social status dictate the rest of his life.

He kissed Aunt May on the cheek and ran out the door. He was much more confident than the first time he did this, anybody who dared try to use his species against him was going to get called out and beat into submission. He had his instincts fully under control now, only letting loose when his emotions ran rampant. This was extraordinary for somebody his age but despite what the alphas try to tell you, it is the omegas who are more level headed and logical.

He walked the familiar streets with his head held high, nobody was going to shame him over something he couldn't control. Wow, it seemed like the instinct lessons with his Aunt was paying off, normally omegas would cower from confrontation but his omega was whole-heartedly agreeing with him.

His confidence seemed to shock people into leaving him alone, it's almost as if they had never seen such a low ranking member of society walk with such purpose. He scoffed, he would show them, he would show them all what a "low member of society" could do. he was going to build such an amazing life for himself. 

The familiar school building came into sight and his confidence faltered slightly before he scolded himself and pushed his shoulders back again and strolled into the building like he was meant to be there, taking deep and even breaths.

He walked calmly to his locker, ignoring the rude whispering about his species and secondary gender.

"Peter!" He turned his head at the overexcited tone his best friend used. He watched as the pudgy American Woodcock beta came bounding over.

"Hey man." 

"Dude you've missed like SO much!"

Peter smiled as his excitable friend relayed all the gossip and helped to answer some of the questions he had about the work. It relaxed him greatly to see his best friend acting so normally around him as if his changes didn't matter. He suddenly cut Ned off with a hug and a whispered thank you.

"No problemo dude, also I love the pun on your shirt today!"

He continued to listen to his friend, adding to his rambling at the right points which in turn made Ned more passionate about the subject. Right now they were making plans to build the new lego death star that Ned had just got. So cool.

"Hey losers."

He turned at the new voice as he was met with Michelle, his alpha African Grey Parrot friend.

"Hi MJ!"

She rolled her eyes at that, her eyes getting glued in the book again. Although that didn't fool him because while she had her eyes stuck on the book, she always saw what was going on around her and never missed a shift in the atmosphere, she was smart like that and he had a lot of admiration for her.

"You talking about your nerd stuff again?"

"Harsh MJ!" Whined Ned, "It's not nerd stuff, it's totally cool stuff that you just don't appreciate."

"Whatever loser." She said affectionately and strolled off, but not before punching Peter in the shoulder, which he had learned meant that she would talk to him later.

A second later the bell for class rang. Peter calmed his nerves, he could do this. It was just chemistry. Which just happened to have his worst bully in it. 

Ned gave him a worried look but nonetheless dragged him into the class and sat them at the front of the class. Peter's heart spiked but he controlled it, he was too exposed here but getting up to move would betray his nerves, which he did not want so he just had to suck it up.

He felt somebody sit behind him and he mentally groaned. Of course, Flash couldn't just leave him alone for one day.

He felt Flash's gaze over him before he heard a deep laugh. "Hey! Penis Parker is a bloody Rock Pidgeon! And I thought you couldn't get any worse. The most common species in this city and an omega? You got it rough Penis, but don't worry, alpha is here to sort it." He cooed as if he was a pet.

Acting in a blind rage, Peter whipped around and spat, "At least my Aunt is proud of me and loves me enough to care what happens with my school life!"

The whole class went deadly silent but Peter didn't regret a thing. he would not let this arrogant bully get away with everything he wanted.

"Careful now little omega," Flash snarled, "or I might just teach you a lesson when your next heat comes around."

The whole class gasped at that because if Flash was caught saying that he would get charged with plotting the rape of a vulnerable omega. Nobody would tell on him, they were all much too scared of him and his friends.

Before Peter could retort with something equally as painful, Mr Warren walked in and silenced the class.

Peter didn't fail to miss the smug smirk from Flash, the arrogant asshole thought he won.

"Now class, settle. We have a new student, his name is Harley Keener and I want you all to welcome him with open arms. He's from Tennessee."

With that, a blond-haired blue-eyed angel walked in. He was at least 6"2 and had around 12 feet of reddish-brown feathers trailing behind him.

Both Peter and his omega made up their mind at the same time, Harley the alpha Harris Hawk was hot. And they wanted him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it! Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
> 
> So Harley and Peter have been introduced, I hope they hit it off!
> 
> This chapter was a lot longer to make up for the length of the last one, I hope you like it and please don't hesitate to point out any mistakes!


	4. Laboratory Living

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, I would like to thank you all for your continued support of the series. I do appreciate it when people comment because it helps me to become a better writer.
> 
> Second of all, if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask because I answer all comments and please don't hesitate to point out if I have made a mistake, no matter how small because I still don't have a beta at the moment so I don't always catch these mistakes on my own.
> 
> With that said, enjoy the chapter!

Being in a car with Tony's driver Happy was _interesting,_ to say the least.

It was quite intimidating to be stuck in the same car as such a stoic and quiet man like Happy for around 14 hours. The harpy eagle didn't speak to Harley except to tell him when they were stopping to eat and where they would be taking a rest for an hour. Outside of that, the man had rolled up the window partition and left Harley to his own devices. Harley refused to be dejected by this though, instead choosing to wipe his sweaty palms on his ripped jeans and pull out his phone.

_Harley: Hey, how are things at home?_

His leg bounced as he sat in the back seat of the car, only fidgeting as soon as he knew that nobody could see him. He refused to be weak in front of others, Harley wouldn't give them a reason to tear him down so easily. 

A ping sounded from his phone a few minutes later, his head whipping towards it and he was opening the message before was even consciously aware of his movements.

_Abby: Can you calm down? You've been gone for two hours. It's not like the whole place is gonna fall apart the second you leave._

_Harley: Are you sure about that? I remember a certain someone burning themselves on the toaster of all things when I was away for one night._

_Abby: Okay first off, the toaster malfunctioned. Secondly, I'm older now and I can take care of myself._

Harley smiled softly down at his phone. If anybody from home could see him at that moment they wouldn't know who he was. The Harley they knew was cocky, arrogant and never lets people get close enough to him for him to bond with them. Barely resisting the eye roll at the thought, Harley responded to his little sister.

_Harley: I know you can, just look out for yourself okay?_

_Abby: Whatever loser, you look out for yourself too, you're the one who is going 14 hours away._

_Harley: I'm older, I'm allowed to have the world on my shoulders, you just focus on being a kid._

_Abby: Well this KID has to get ready for school now and this KID will respond whenever she has the time._

_Harley: Yeah yeah, love you_

He sighed as the message was left on opened. This was going to be a long journey without his sister to amuse him.

* * *

The car rolled to a stop two hours later. Harley looked out of the tinted windows and saw a McDonald's logo.

A soft whirring sound grabbed his attention and he looked through the now open separation window and saw Happy's irritated face.

"What do you want?"

"A 12 piece chicken nugget and some sweet tea, though I doubt they make it as good as back home." He smirked back at him.

If it was possible, Happy's face got even more disgruntled and he nodded once, the car starting up again and the window separating him from Happy was rolled up. He could hear Happy's muffled voice ordering the food.

He leaned back in the seat and a few minutes later a bag of food and a cup was practically shoved at him through the window. He grinned as he caught the scent of sweet tea and didn't hesitate to stick the straw into the cup and take a big sip. Almost barfing, Harley made noises of disgust so loudly that even the grumpy man in the from rolled down the window to check on him.

"I'm fine, the sweet tea is just so disgustin'."

Happy could be heard muttering to himself, "I still have no clue why the private jet wasn't just sent over to pick him up instead of me driving fourteen hours there and back just to pick up the damn kid."

The window was once again rolled up and Harley was left to himself. He picked up some fries and jammed them into his mouth to get rid of the horrible taste the fake sweet tea had left. Had Harley known that the taste was going to be that bad, he would have just ordered a bucket of sick because they tasted so similar.

Once the car began moving again, Harley contented himself with finishing his meal and staring out the window. He watched with rapt attention, fascinated as a large variety of scenes flew by his eyes. Sometimes it was small towns, woodlands and open fields and other times it was main streets and skyscrapers. The muffled sounds from the car and the beautiful scenery slowly lulled Harley into a light sleep where he dreamed of freedom.

It was around six hours later that Harley was awoken. They had been travelling in the car for ten hours and Harley could feel the effects of it in the stiffness in his limbs that comes with being still for far too long. It was 3 o'clock now and it had started to rain heavily, putting a damper on Harley's mood.

He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and realised the car had stopped moving. They couldn't have arrived in New York yet, they still had about four hours to go, so why had they stopped now then? There was a loud bang as one of the doors on the car was shut and he turned his head as his door was opened.

"Come on kid, we are stopping here to stretch our legs, as per Tony's orders."

Quickly building up his defences, Harley smirked at the man. "Ah, I finally understand your role in this whole operation. You're Tony's lackey."

He jumped out of the car, striding past the man with more confidence than he was feeling at that moment. He felt horrible for saying that to the man but he couldn't afford to let people in, just in case they got too close and decided he was too broken for them, that he had too many issues for them.

When Tony had first told him about his panic attacks, Harley was relieved to know that he wasn't the only one who experienced them, he was happy to be able to name what happened to him. Then he panicked because he couldn't even deal with his own, how was he supposed to deal with somebody else's at the tender age of ten years old. Tony had then taken charge and told him exactly what he needed to do and he stored that information away for his on uses.

Now Harley was able to deal with his panic attacks quickly and quietly, without ever alerting somebody that he experienced them or that he was broken.

Shaking off those thoughts, Harley looked around the park they had parked in. A sense of peace washed over him and it helped to calm his nerves. There was a lot of open-air he could fly in without bumping into anybody and there was a large area that was sectioned off with thick pads on the ground. That area was for new fliers or first-timers so they could get used to the feel of the air on their wings.

With a sigh of contentment, Harley spread his reddish-brown wings and started running to build momentum before his wings caught an updraft and he soared into the sky, a strong beat from his large wings helped to keep him in the air. The rain beating down on him didn't bother him as much as it should, he was happy to soar in the skies, no matter the weather.

All of his worries could melt away when he was up here, nothing could bother him and he was free. He lazily glided around the park, only occasionally flapping his wings to catch another updraft. He found Happy a while later, still leaning on the car focusing on his phone, but Harley knew that Happy was watching him so he could make sure he didn't get into any trouble. Rolling his eyes, Harley soared higher, only seeing a few other people.

He felt the air current changed and he panicked for a second, thinking he had caught a dodgy air current and he was going to plummet to his death, only to look over and see a pretty dark-haired tawny owl flying next to him. A subtle sniff of the air told him this girl was an omega, but a pretty weak one that didn't get more than a raised eyebrow from his alpha. Over the years Harley had learned two things about his alpha, one being that he preferred to let Harley take control and he didn't say much outside of their ruts, and two being that he was very hard to impress.

"Hey handsome, are you a photographer because I can picture you and me together."

Harley had to fight to keep his expression in his normal smirk but he wanted nothing more than to burst out laughing like his alpha was doing. Granted it wasn't a creative pick-up line but at least she was trying, and she _was_ very pretty, even with the rain making her hair go frizzy. He had learned pretty early in that he was interested in both the male and female body, taking many to his bed as he discovered his sexuality, so he had no problem with having fun with this dark-haired beauty.

"What's a beautiful owl like ya doin' awake at this time of day?"

"Something caught my interest and I would much rather be in bed with said interest than on my own."

Well, all pretences of subtlety flew out the window with that statement, she seemed pretty determined to get into his pants, not even asking his name. Harley was never good at denying anything to pretty women.

He could hear his alpha grumbling quietly how they shouldn't whore themselves out, they should wait for a better mate to come along and give them the whole world. Harley scoffed, in this day and age nobody wanted alpha's like that anymore, they wanted the dominant, seductive bullies that captured their whole attention, nobody wanted a soft alpha anymore.

The grumbling went quiet pretty quickly after that and Harley felt vaguely bad for the dejected feelings coming off his alpha but he shook his head. He would need to evolve and learn that the world isn't like that anymore. He turned back to the girl who was staring at him with mud-coloured eyes waiting for his reply.

"Well, why don't we land and see if this interest won't help ya with that specific need then?"

Her eyes darkened with lust and they both quietly descended towards the woods. They ran deeper and when Harley deemed them safe enough, he grabbed her by the waist, ignoring the irritating giggling, and pushed her against the closest tree and started grinding up against her.

He could smell that she wasn't near her heat but scent blockers were powerful these days that they could block the scent of pre-heat and he wasn't looking to get anybody knocked up at this age.

"Rub your scent blocker off one of your wrists" He demanded, grinding into her again.

She moaned lightly and made quick work of her wrist, offering it to him as soon as it was off. He took a deep breath of it and determined that she wasn't near her heat. He startled when she moaned as if he had already started stroking her in all the right places. Scenting wasn't a sexual act, it happened between family members and lovers when they were being affectionate with each other, so Harley couldn't be blamed as a growl of disgust slipped from his throat before he could stop it. 

The stupid girl decided that she wouldn't read the growl for what it was and decided to misread it completely for a growl of dominance. He could smell it when she decided to "give in to his dominant demands" when her weak scent of arousal flared. Before Harley knew what was happening, he was reeling back in shock, bile rising in his throat as her scent washed over him and completely repulsed him.

Then there was a strong hand on his shoulder, pulling him away from the scene. His breath quickened and his eyes went wide, he was about to shout for help when he looked over his shoulder and relaxed when he saw it was Happy, who was looking at the situation with amusement. He raised an eyebrow at Harley and pulled him towards the car without saying a word to the distressed girl.

As they walked through the park Happy started speaking to him in what could only be described at smug amusement. "Now you've learned what happens when you go against your instinctual side for too long and ignore it.

"It has that kind of power over me?!"

"Not the kind you're thinking of, only the power to take what you've already experienced for yourself and amplify it. Now I'm not here to be your sex-ed teacher, let's get out of here."

It was more than Happy had spoken to him on the whole trip so he just nodded dumbly, following Happy to the car silently. Though he was glad that the man seemed to not be angry over the sharp jibe Harley had thrown at him earlier, he was worried at how observant the man seemed to be and it was just another reason to not let the man in.

* * *

Stark Tower just every bit as awe-inspiring as Tony had described it to be. With sleek one-way glass and smooth curves, it truly looked like a masterpiece. 

Harley was too awed by what potential the building could hold to realise that they pulled into an underground garage, filled with the most vintage and expensive cars on the planet. It would be just like Tony to have all the cars here to showcase but never actually take them anywhere. They pulled into a subsection that was filled with sleek black limos and jeeps, which he assumed was used for staff.

The car finally pulled into a parking space and Harley stepped out, staring around in wonder at the sheer collection and rage Tony had amassed over the years. If Happy noticed his star-struck look then he didn't say anything, choosing to ignore Harley and walk towards and elevator. Once Harley had pulled himself together enough to walk into the elevator he almost jumped out of his skin as a female voice seemed to come from all over the place, sending his senses into wack.

"Welcome, Mr Hogan and Mr Keener."

"Hey FRIDAY, take us the penthouse please."

"Certainly Mr Hogan."

Harley stared at the interaction in confusion, who was FRIDAY? The last he heard, Tony's AI was called JARVIS, so what changed?

"What happened to JARVIS?"

"Apologies Mr Keener, I am FRIDAY, Mr Stark's new AI after JARVIS was destroyed when ULTRON came to life."

"Oh, that's a shame."

Happy was looking at his awkwardness in amusement. Harley was looking every which way trying to address an AI which came from all direction.

The elevator came to a stop after a few minutes and Harley had to take a deep breath to stop himself from running away. He was stronger than this, he would not run away from the best thing that could ever happen to him.

"FRIDAY direct Harley to his room, I've got things I need to do."

"Certainly Mr Hogan."

Happy turned around and left in the elevator again with only a muttered, "Your bags will be up soon."

Taking another deep breath, Harley followed FRIDAY'S directions and found himself in a large, open room with a bathroom attached and a walk-in closet. He looked around and noted that the walls were both sound and scent proof, which would certainly come in handy when he was in a rut. He blushed at the thought of going through a rut with Tony there, both he and Tony knew that Harley couldn't afford suppressants and Tony offered to buy them for him while he was at the tower because while Harley was in Tennessee he refused to accept charity, but he still had to go through a natural rut before he could get into a routine of suppressants. 

There was a loud knock at the door which snapped Harley out of his daze. He walked over to it and pulled it open slowly to reveal the grinning face of the one and only Tony Stark.

"Hey, kid! Everything to your liking?"

Harley nodded, accepting the embrace that was offered to him. The Philippine eagle wrapping his larger wings around Harley, a move which revealed that Tony thought of him as family. He had to fight to keep his emotions in check and stop it from souring his scent. 

"Everything is perfect, thank you." Harley could afford to be this close to the man because he was a beta and wasn't as sensitive to his scent as others were and although he was an eagle, he wasn't so observant unless he already suspected something was up. That was the real challenge, keeping Tony from suspecting because then he would look into it and find out everything.

"I'm glad, you can look around later though, we are going to go work in the lab."

With a surprised smirk, he bounded off with Tony to the labs, knowing that he wouldn't be coming out for hours.

* * *

Halfway through designing new sketches for the iron man suit, Tony started speaking to him. They had traded a few quips and barbs while they were working but they had yet to hold a conversation.

"So, Happy told me you were caught in a compromising position with a girl in a park of all places," Tony teased with an eyebrow wiggle.

Harley blushed and then groaned, hitting his head hard off the table.

"Don't do that, you're going to lose more brain cells than you already have from being away from me for so long," Tony teased again.

With another groan, he hit his head harder off of the table.

Tony laughed, "Okay, I get it, no questioning Mr ladies man about his latest conquest."

"Did ya have to put it like that?"

"Yes."

"I hate you."

"No you don't it's impossible to hate me and if you do then you're just jealous because I have a bigger ladies man reputation than you."

"That's not necessarily a good thing." 

"Of course it is! It just means that I'm very capable of pleasuring my partners!"

"God please stop, I don't need to hear about this."

"Whatever. That's not what I wanted to talk to you about though." Tony started spinning in his chair, throwing a pen in the air and catching it.

"Then what is this oh so mysterious topic that ya simply must talk to me about right at this second."

"Stop being cheeky! I didn't drive you all the way here just so you could talk to me like this!" 

"Well technically ya didn't drive me here and maybe if you stopped changin' the subject to rant about how bratty teenagers are every two seconds then ya would be able to tell me what it is ya need to tell me."

Tony huffed. "Now I don't want to tell you."

"That's fine by me old man, you're probably just usin' that as an excuse to hide that you've forgotten what it is in your old age."

"I am a genius, I would never forget such a vital piece of information."

"Yet you're still failing to tell me," Harley said with a smirk.

"You're going to school tomorrow, It's a Monday so you'll be going. Your mother doesn't want you to miss out on education so I'm sending you to New York's finest science school. All your supplies are ready and you've already been transferred."

Harley blinked in shock, he hadn't even thought of school. His throat closed up as he realised how committed Tony must be to him if he was willing to look after all of his needs, including his education. He was going to school at the best science school in New York, not even the fact that it was school could tone down Harley's mood, this would greatly benefit his future. He managed to stutter out a "Thank you." To Tony, knowing that he hadn't managed to keep out all of the emotion.

Tony's eyes softened and a small smile came across his face, "You're welcome tater tot."

With that statement, the emotional atmosphere was broken and they went back to working in silence, only speaking to share ideas or trade quips that were more affectionate than harmful. It was nice, Harley decided. It was like having a real dad.

* * *

When Monday rolled around, Harley wasn't concerned. He was confident in his ability to wow people with his charisma and his status couldn't hurt either. He would be able to easily get into the popular groups and avoid being a social outcast.

Harley was currently sitting in the back seat of Happy's work car once again, staring out the window in a daze. They were a few minutes out from the school which gave Harley ample time to come up with his persona, the one which would allow him to fit in and stand out at the same time.

The car eventually pulled to a stop and Happy gave him a pointed look. Rolling his eyes, Harley picked up his bag and slid out of the car. When the car immediately drove away Harley wasn't shocked and he just made his way to the office to pick up his schedule.

He made it to the front desk without incident and there was a very nice man at the front who was willing to be patient with Harley as he stumbled his way through a rubbish explanation of what he needed.

"I'll take it you're Harley Keener then?" The man said, looking faintly amused.

Harley just nodded, unable to keep the blush from his face. He accepted the timetable as it was handed to him and was appreciative of the map he was given too. He thanked the man and rushed out of the office into the busy corridor, noting that his day was going to start with chemistry. He grimaced, he wasn't as good at chemistry as he was with physics and engineering but he knew enough to get an A.

He was in the process of following the map to his class when a delicious scent hit him like a ton of bricks. It was a powerful scent, enough to get his normally quiet alpha harping in his mind to get a move on and find the person before they got claimed and they had no chance. It was a wonder that nobody else was affected like he was. It was incredibly powerful, and it made him feel like he was drunk on it.

Deciding to listen to his alpha for once, he followed the scent and only vaguely acknowledged the bell ringing. He noticed with interest that the scent was leading to his chemistry class. That meant he would have a whole hour of smelling that delicious scent and getting closer to that person. He met the teacher outside, who said he would introduce him to the whole class.

Once he walked in, it felt like he could go mad with hunger for that specific scent. Vanilla and pine, a combination that shouldn't work but it did. He smirked to the class as he was introduced, seeing many faces darken with interest and lust towards him.

He was told to sit in the empty seat next to an alpha cassowary called Flash Thompson and behind an omega rock pigeon. Now he was able to pinpoint the scent was coming from the cute omega in front of him and it put a dent in his plans.

He now needed to decide what was more important to him. Becoming popular and befriending the alpha beside him, who he could tell was powerful and had a lot of influence within the school judging by the way he held himself and the way others were looking at him. Or he could do what his alpha wanted and scout out a potential mate and commit social suicide.

Now, Harley was not a person who used others species against them, he thought that type of behaviour was abhorrent and he would never understand how people could bring themselves to treat others horribly over something they couldn't control. But he knew, that if he tried to woo the little omega, it would bring a lot of negative attention on himself, and that was something he didn't need right now.

Plus, there was always time after school to find a mate, no matter how much his alpha screamed at him to claim the powerful omega before somebody else did. No, Harley's mind was made up, it was a hard choice but it was for the betterment for his family. He convinced himself that another omega just this powerful would show up, he wasn't missing anything by not trying to date this one.

For the first time, Harley's alpha roared at him. It was furious.

But Harley couldn't bring himself to care. This was for his future and the future of his family, he could not afford to be distracted. Then why did his belly erupt in butterflies when the doe-eyed omega looked at him?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! As always, comments are appreciated.
> 
> I am very excited to write the next chapter. I am still un-beta'd though so I apologise for any mistakes that I may not have noticed.
> 
> Thank you all for your support through the form of Kudos and comments, it really keeps me motivated!  
> I'm thinking of writing a fanfic between Harley and his beloved sweet tea, thoughts?
> 
> See you next week lovelies!


	5. Unfriendly Fire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Firstly, do you guys notice an improvement in my writing? That's all thanks to my lovely and talented new beta a_sodapop I'm very appreciative of their efforts, so thank you for helping me.
> 
> Secondly, I spent a lot more time writing this chapter so I hope you guys like it!

Whatever hope Peter had in befriending the new student, quickly vanished when he was asked to sit next to Flash of all people. His biggest bully wouldn't hesitate to try and get Harley to join him in making Peter's life a living hell. 

He could hear them whispering behind him, though he couldn't fully concentrate on what was being said because Harley's scent was simply wonderful and was making his head feel all fuzzy. He was distantly aware that Ned was looking at him in concern but he couldn't bring himself to care that much when he was feeling this relaxed off of just a scent. He could only imagine how much better it would smell coming straight from one of his scent glands.

Scowling at that thought, he tuned back into the conversation behind him. Thankfully the teacher had a habit of waiting for latecomers to join the class before he started teaching, so that would give Peter a little bit of time to eavesdrop on the hushed conversation between his tormentor and his (hopefully) new friend.

"What do ya mean he's only fifteen?!"

Peter sucked in a breath at that. He knew for sure they were talking about him, he was the only fifteen-year-old in the room, the rest of the students were either sixteen or seventeen. It wasn't his fault that he had to skip a grade because he was completing the work too fast for his grade at the time. It was one of the main reasons why Flash was so jealous of Peter because while Peter skipped a grade and was still having a relatively easy time with the work, Flash was struggling to keep up. 

"I mean," He heard Flash sneer, "Penis over there somehow tricked the teachers into letting him skip a year. I don't know how he did it, no way he's smart enough to get into this school on his own let alone skip a grade. His family probably sold everything they owned to bribe the school, it's probably why they're so poor."

Ned grabbed onto Peter's arm tightly and gave him a sympathetic look. "I know," He whispered, "but you can't react, he's trying to provoke you."

Taking a deep breath to calm his racing heart, he unclenched his fists wondering when he had clenched them in the first place. He relaxed his jaw and sat back in his seat, trying to act as if he was unbothered. He couldn't help but feel disappointed and hurt at Harley's next words, he hadn't even made eye contact with the other but he seemed to already hold this negative opinion of him.

"Well, I'm inclined to believe ya, no way a rock pigeon, especially an omega, could get into such a good school like this on his own." 

Whatever Flash was going to say was promptly cut off by Mr Warren as he called attention to the front and began the chemistry lesson. A whisper from behind him had his heart sinking and his breath catching in his throat.

"You know Harley, I think that you and I are going to get on just fine," Flash whispered loudly just proving that he was only being friendly with Harley to get more people to torment Peter.

Closing his eyes and banging his head down on the table, Peter let out a quiet groan of anger. These things always happened to him, why couldn't he have one nice day at school without Flash messing it up for him. Even if Flash wasn't directly involved, Peter hadn't had a peaceful day at school for years due to Flash's actions.

Risking a look behind him while the teacher was distracted, Peter's breath got caught in his throat as he made eye contact with stunning blue eyes which were staring back at him with a calculating look. A blush rose to Peter's cheeks and he quickly faced the front of the classroom again, cursing himself for not being able to control his emotions.

A punch to his arm had Peter wincing and turning his accusatory gaze to his best friend, who was enthusiastically hitting his arm with a huge smile. 

"Dude what," Peter snapped.

"You keep looking at the new guy" Ned whispered.

Throwing a panicked look to the two alphas behind him, he drew closer to Ned and hissed to him, "I do not!"

"Yes, you do! I know you Peter and I'm pretty sure he’s not made of Lego so that can't be what that look was for."

Peter ground his teeth together, "Leave it, Ned, you're just imagining things."

Ned gave him a suspicious stare but went back to his work, not being able to prove anything yet.

Peter gave him a sharp look and huffed, turning back into the lecture the teacher was giving. He found himself quickly getting bored again when he was met with unchallenging material. He sighed and let his mind wander for the better part of the lesson, unintentionally finding his mind wandering back to Harley and his scent.

 _"No."_ He said sternly at his omega.

 _"But why,"_ It whined, _"Why can't I reach out to his alpha, it's very strong you know."_

_"I don't care how strong it is. He has allied himself with Flash and said such horrible things about me. His alpha wouldn't appreciate it."_

He could practically feel the pout coming from his omega, making him roll his eyes in return.

_"Pretty please? Don't deny that you weren't eyeing him up when he walked in"_

_"Will you please stop distracting me? I've only written like 900 words in the hour I've been here, I was supposed to have written 2000!"_

_"Well, that wouldn't have happened if you would just accept that you want to take Harley to Long John's for some chips"_ It teased.

Taking a deep breath and praying for the patience to deal with the whiny omega he responded, _"First off, I do not want anything to do with Harley, and secondly, we aren't in Britain, it fries not chips."_

_"What if I'm British? "_

Peter let out a loud sigh, he was not going to have this argument with it again. _"You aren't British. You're from Queens like me. You ARE me, so suck it up."_

He blocked out his omega's whining as he heard a sharp call from the class, "Mr Parker, are you paying attention?"

He blushed as a few people turn their attention to him and he shrank back slightly to make himself appear smaller. "Yes sir," he managed to mumble out.

"Good, now as I was saying, I have received confirmation from all of your guardians to bring you all on a trip to Oscorp Labs tomorrow-" 

He was cut off as people suddenly burst out talking to each other excitedly, already planning who they were going to partner up with and sit with on the bus.

"Dude!" Ned burst out, "Oscorp! The only rival that Stark Industries has! This is amazing! They must have kept it a secret because my mom didn't tell me anything about it!" The boy was already speaking animatedly about everything he wanted to see and how much they would learn from the tour alone. Even Peter couldn't help but smile in the face of his best friends’ excitement. 

A sharp whistle came from the front as Mr Warren took their attention back to go over the details of the trip. Maybe today wouldn't be so bad for Peter after all.

Oh, how wrong he was. 

Peter didn't even get five steps out of the classroom before he was dragged away by the back of the neck and led to a secluded corner where he was cornered by Flash with Harley loitering in the background watching the scene with impassive eyes.

He ripped his eyes away from Harley's figure when he felt a burst of pain from his wings as the sensitive appendages slammed into the wall behind him. He wasn't quick enough to catch the small cry of pain that escaped his mouth. He thought he heard Harley shift slightly when he heard it but then suddenly Flash was filling up his vision. Peter glared up at the older alpha, hating the fact that Flash was taller than him and Peter had to look up to look into his eyes.

Flash sneered down at him and blocked off any escape route he had by placing his hands either side of his head, letting out a low growl that was supposed to be intimidating. "Want to say something like that again Parker? That's right, you won't because you're a puny omega Rock Pigeon."

Eyes flashing in anger, Peter glared harder up at the older boy, his wings shaking slightly in his agitation. "Go away Flash, leave me alone." He bit out.

Smirking, Flash leaned closer, "No, I don't think so. Naughty omegas need to be punished and you were very naughty back in the classroom."

Reeling back in horror, Peter shifted away as much as he could and allowed his instincts to take over. He turned his chin down in defiance and bared his teeth, a sharp hissing sound escaping his throat. The message was clear. "Flash. Back off. Now."

The bully looked back at Harley in amusement, "Did you hear that Keener? The little omega thinks he can threaten me. How cute." With no warning Flash punched Peter in the stomach, making him winded and bend over in pain. Without hesitating Flash punched him in the face, sending him to the floor. Peter thought he heard Harley make a noise of protest but that thought quickly vanished when his chin was kicked by Flash.

"Flash." 

Panting, Flash looked over at Harley, not noticing the barely restrained anger in his eyes, "What Keener?"

"Teacher."

"Shit," he looked at Peter, who was still breathless on the floor, one last time before scampering off. "Come on Keener!"

Harley gave Peter a once over, his eyes flashing with an emotion Peter couldn't identify before he too walked off.

Groaning in pain, Peter managed to pull himself up to lean against the wall to catch his breath. He closed his eyes and waited for the teacher to inevitably find him and start asking all the wrong questions.

He sat there for more than two minutes, more than enough time for any teacher to pass by and see him. He panted against the wall, his breathing slowly coming back to him and the slight shaking subsided enough for him to pull his inhaler out of his bag and use it. He finally concluded that no teacher was coming, but then why would Harley lie to Flash about that? Maybe the teacher just turned around and never came this way.

Sighing he pulled himself up, groaning and it pulled on his now tender stomach muscles and he made his way to class, only a few minutes late.

"Mr Parker, care to tell me why you're late?" The teacher, Mrs Johnson, demanded.

"Toilet," He grunted, sliding into his seat beside MJ.

She gave him a calculating look. He sighed again, knowing that she would catch on very soon as to what happened, nothing happened without her knowing about it.

At the end of the school day, Peter managed to escape both Flash's bullying and his friends prying into what happened.

Although the bruises hadn't shown up yet, Peter was in a lot more pain now that the adrenaline had worn off. He could feel the tenderness of his face and stomach where Flash had hit him. He was going to have to come up with another excuse to tell Aunt May about the bruises, he hadn't used the door one in a while.

He made his way to the subway station, dodging the foot traffic of New York with practised ease. He gave any spare quarters he had to the homeless people lining the streets and bounded down the street until he came to his destination. 

He accidentally knocked into a woman and the disgusted look that was sent his way had him scampering away quickly, wincing at the pull of his muscles. He swiftly paid the fare and he didn't have to wait long for the subway to arrive and he was careful to find a seat far away from everyone else.

He sighed and placed his earphones in his ears, blasting his favourite songs. Closing his eyes, Peter relaxed, knowing it would be a while until his stop was called.

He suddenly got the feeling that he was being watched, and cracked one eye open to peer at his surroundings. About a minute later he saw a group of raptor alphas and betas sending him shifty looks every couple of seconds, normally he wouldn't think twice about it because of his breed, but these men were making him feel on edge. Thankfully his stop was nearing so all he would have to do is lose them in the crowd if they followed him.

Fifteen minutes later, he arrived at his stop and out of his peripheral vision, he noticed the group he was wary about get up too. His heart skipped a beat as he walked faster into the crowd, hoping that if they were following him, his smaller size would be an advantage. 

He chanced a look behind him and nearly started crying in fear of what he saw. All 6 men had picked up the pace with him and they were beginning to spread out, possibly to box him in and trap him in. His mind started spiralling as to what would happen if these men caught him, he could be beaten, killed, raped or even sold into human trafficking. His instincts were going haywire with the new threat and he couldn't even fly away because he couldn't afford to pay to get his flying licence and certificate.

Peter's mouth went dry and his breathing came out harder as he yet again picked up the pace, and as before, the men picked up the pace too. If Peter allowed them to box him in, who knew what would happen to him, he couldn't stop to ask for help either because that would put them in danger too and there was no guarantee that they would even listen. With this in his mind, Peter broke out into a run. Sure, he wasn't the most athletic person in the world, but he could run fast and he knew these streets like the back of his hand.

With the other men giving chase, Peter broke through the crowd onto quieter streets with more hiding places. He wasn't sure if he could phone the police for this because they were just chasing him and the police were notorious for being discriminative towards those of lower social standings.

He was beginning to feel the strain of running for so long but the adrenaline was helping to keep him going. He rounded another corner and climbed between two large dumpsters, pulling a bit of sheet metal in front of him to further hide. Holding his breath, Peter heard two of the men come around the corner after him.

"Where the hell is that little runt!" One of them grunted.

"How the hell am I supposed to know, this was supposed to be a simple job. Grab the disgusting lowlife, break his wings and leave." The other snarled.

Tears started to gather in Peter's eyes. Break his wings? If a person broke their wings then there was a high possibility that it couldn't be fixed and they would remain flightless for the rest of their life. He gulped, now very aware of how dangerous these men were if they were willing to break a poor innocents wing.

He was so deep in his thoughts that he almost didn't hear the heavy footsteps coming closer. His mind went completely blind with panic as they came and stood directly beside his hiding spot.

"I can still smell his disgustingly sweet omega scent nearby. Maybe he's hiding instead of running."

Peter screamed in fright as he was picked up by the shoulders as another tried to catch hold of his flailing legs.

"Stay still you little twerp!" The beta male shouted, grunting in pain as Peter's foot made contact with the man's cheek.

Wings and limbs flailing, Peter managed to wriggle his legs out the weak hold the beta man had them in and headbutted the alpha so he would drop him. Grunting in pain and momentarily disorientated, Peter fell to the floor and stumbled to his feet while the other men moaned about their injuries. His screams had caught the attention of the others in the group and as Peter started running again, a man came out of nowhere and tackled him to the floor, bashing his head to the floor.

"Right you stupid little runt. Stop fighting."

The man pinned Peter to the floor as another ran up to them and grabbed Peter's right-wing at the top joint. Peter screamed, hoping to draw attention so somebody would come and save him.

"Shut up!" Another man hissed, shoving a sock in Peter's mouth to muffle his cries.

Nearly throwing up, tears finally poured from his eyes as the reality hit him. He couldn't get away, there was no way he was getting away from all of these men. Two hands gripped his right-wing again and applied great pressure to the top of the joint. When he finally heard it snap, Peter was in shock for a couple of seconds before the pain hit him and he wailed.

"STOP IT! PLEASE!" Peter cried, managing to spit out the sock.

Letting instinct take over in his distress, he produced an inhumane call. It ripped from his throat, letting all alphas in the area know he was distressed and need help right at that moment. Omegas only produced this sound if they were fearing for their lives or the lives of their family. If the call was powerful enough it would turn any alpha within a 10-foot radius feral with only one goal in mind, protect the omega. 

Before they could move onto the other wing, a roar of rage came from one of the alphas in the group as he launched himself at the two holding him down, intent on beating them black and blue. Peter just lay there in shock and pain, crying and wailing. He tried to pull himself together but he began to hyperventilate, his breathing becoming shorter, his vision going fuzzy and he felt light-headed. Knowing it was a bad idea to pass out around these dangerous people Peter tried to calm down but he knew he was losing the battle when black began to creep in the edges of his vision.

When Peter woke up, he wasn't in as much pain and he was lying on something soft. Looking around in confusion he recognised that he was in a hospital bed at his Aunt May's work and he tried to remember how he had gotten here.

He felt something twitch against his hand and he looked at it, only to find Aunt May's tear-stained face lying on the edge of his hospitable bed. He gently removed his hand, ignoring the ache it caused, and shook his Aunt awake. "Aunt May?" He whispered.

Drowsily opening her eyes, she looked up at Peter, breaking out into a tearful smile. "Peter! You're awake. I'm so sorry baby, I'm so sorry that I wasn't there to protect you." She began to sob, carefully pulling him into a hug, being mindful of his broken wing.

"Aunt May," He croaked, his own throat being clogged with emotion, "It's okay, they only got one wing and it's in a cast now, so I'll be okay."

"You're so brave," She sobbed, "My strong, brave nephew."

It was unnerving to see his Aunt May break down like this. This wasn't the strong, determined and stubborn woman he knew. She must have been truly terrified if she was acting like this. She sat back down in her chair with a very solemn face.

"Peter, with your broken wing, you'll be allowed out of the hospital by tomorrow, so you can still go to that Oscorp trip but you have to be careful."

He smiled brightly at that; he was glad that he was still able to go on the trip but he felt like his Aunt was still keeping something from him. "Not that that's not great and everything but, what are you keeping from me?"

She sucked in a breath to calm herself before speaking again, "I'm so sorry Peter. The break was too messy to properly align so even if you ever achieved flight, it would be incredibly difficult and you would only end up injuring yourself further."

Peter went pale at that. He would never fly. People talked about flying as this freeing and enlightening experience that would make you a real part of their society but now, he would never get to experience that. He was flightless. It was just another thing to separate him from his peers, another thing which made him a freak.

As if she could sense his spiralling thoughts, his Aunt tugged him into another hug, tighter than the last and more comforting. The final straw was when his Aunt began crooning in his ear, urging him to just let go and lean on her. He burst out crying, loud and messy sobs filled the room and his scent became sour as he finally let himself be weak and lean on others for comfort.

His Aunt ended up staying the night, not leaving him alone for a second more than she had to, comforting him after his nightmares and he appreciated her all the more for it.

Early in the morning, a police officer came by. He sent a curious look to May who sent him a stern one back, he was to talk to the police officer or there would be consequences, he gulped and motioned her to sit down.

"Hello Peter, I'm Officer Harding and I understand that you are a victim of a hate crime?"

He nodded once, twisting the blanket in his hands as the familiar feelings of anxiety crept upon him.

"We take these crimes very seriously and I assure you that we are working our hardest to find these six men. We have had multiple witnesses come forward and talk to our sketch artist so I'm going to show you the sketches and I want you to see if you can recognise any of the faces, is that okay?"

He nodded once again and took the tablet he was offered and flicked through them. The first few were new faces to him but when he got to the fifth face, something niggled in the back of his mind.

"Him," He told the officer, "I helped him catch his dog in the past. Then he was the one to break my wing." The police officer made a note of it and urged him to continue looking through the sketches. That's when Peter realised that he had seen all of these men on the first day out of his house after he gained his wings. He had glared at these men and clearly, they held a grudge.

He told the officer as much as he could about the incident, feeling hopeful that maybe he would get justice and he wouldn't have to be afraid of them tracking him down again and breaking his other one. The officer nodded and gave him her contact information with a promise that she would get this sorted out for him and then she promptly left. Sighing, Peter got out of bed slowly, crying out as pain seared through his whole body at once, the bruises from Flash finally making themselves known and the beginnings of discolouration was showing on his face. 

Managing to pull on his clothes, he walked to the door where his Aunt was waiting to discharge him. She supported him to the front desk and called a taxi to take him to school. He frowned at that; they couldn't afford to take a taxi but the stubborn set of his Aunt's jaw had him accepting it quietly. She kissed him on the head and handed him everything he needed for the trip and some painkillers. Gratefully he took the painkillers, using his bottle of water to wash it down.

He pulled the taxi door shut and let himself drift off to the quiet rumble of the car.

Oscorp was a lot fancier than Peter first believed. He didn't know what he was expecting but it certainly wasn't this.

At the start of the tour, Ned had kept bugging Peter as to why his face looked like it had been smashed through a brick wall and why his wing was in a cast, but Peter was in no mood to deal with Ned's rambles today so he had snapped and told Ned it was none of his business and to just leave it alone. Now he regretted it because Peter was left to trail at the end of the line by himself while Ned and MJ talked about each of the projects.

Sure, these projects were interesting but Peter much preferred chemistry and biology to physics, which is why his mood notably perked up when they came to the genetically engineered spiders. Nothing could ruin this part of the tour for him, even if Flash was leaving him alone today. Speaking of Flash, Peter's eyes drifted to Flash's companion who happened to be laughing at that moment. Harley looked so handsome when he laughed.

Blushing at his thoughts, Peter turned back to the spider enclosure in front of him but he couldn't see any spider. He shrugged to himself, the tour guide had said that some of the spiders have extraordinary camouflage abilities. Turning to another cage, Peter hissed when he felt a sharp pain on his hand. Looking down, he saw it was some type of spider, shuddering, Peter flicked the spider off his hand and walked away quickly, failing to take notice of the panicking scientists behind him who happened to be looking for a lost spider.

The rest of the tour passed without incident, it was peaceful and the only thing that was bringing Peter down was the dull ache coming for all over his body and the insistent itching that came from the bite he got earlier.

Making up with Ned was easy enough once he explained the reason, he was so hurt to him and Ned was furious on his behalf making suggestive statements that made Peter laugh. This day couldn't get any more perfect for Peter, even after Ned invited him around to his house for a home-cooked meal and to play with his Legos.

Things could finally go back to normal for Peter Parker.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry! Don't kill me, it was for the plot!
> 
> Feel free to express your feelings in the comments, I hope you guys aren't too mad at me for hurting him like that, I hope you enjoyed at least some parts of it.
> 
> I accidentally posted the rough draft of the chapter so sorry if there was any confusion!
> 
> See you next week lovelies!


	6. Instincts Challenge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, thank you to my wonderful beta because I couldn't have written this without him! Be sure to check his profile too and give his fic a lot of love too! 
> 
> https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_sodapop/pseuds/a_sodapop
> 
> Also thank you to everyone who left a Kudos or a comment, we are at 100 Kudos and already at 1,000 hits, so thank you to you all! Enjoy this chapter lovelies!

"What is right is often forgotten by what is convenient."

This was a quote which Harley Keener lived almost religiously by, often thinking of it several times a day to keep himself in check. It was a hard-learned lesson from his younger years when his father chose what was convenient rather than what was right that fateful night. But this was different because this time Harley's family and reputation were at stake, so surely it couldn't hurt to do what was most convenient for him just this one time.

Although his head seemed to be swimming in a relaxing haze caused by the scent of that _insufferably adorable curly-haired omega,_ he did his best to push back the contented rumble that was building in his throat and turned to the alpha cassowary next to him. He studied the other's face briefly, taking note of the cruel sneer plastered on his lips and the hard glint in his brown eyes that seemed to be directed towards the little omega in front of them. Harley knocked his shoulder into Flash's, interrupting the staring contest he seemed to be having with the omega's sweet little curls that barely brushed the back of his neck. When Flash's eyes turned to Harley, they lost some, but not all, of their hard glint. 

"What do you want Keener?" Flash asked, his chest puffing out ever so slightly in a show that was meant to intimidate weaker alphas. 

Harley had to work doubly as hard to keep his snort of amusement to himself, this chicken of a flightless bird thought he could intimidate an alpha harris hawk such as Harley? Not a chance. "What's up with baby face over there?" He whispered, not wanting to catch the attention of the teacher again so soon into the lesson. He studied the back of the omega, he was a frail little thing but he had exceptionally large wings for his frame. Having larger wings than your body frame was normally a good thing as it gave off the vibes of power and dominance, not such a good trait on an omega. It suited him though, Harley eventually conceded as he looked at the stubborn set of the pigeon's jaw as he turned to his pudgy friend.

His attention was brought back to Flash as the aggressive bird made a sound of disgust at the mention of the person sitting in front of them. "Oh Penis? The little runt is a fifteen-year-old kid-"

Stomach turning at that piece of information, Harley couldn't stop the sudden outburst. "What do ya mean he's only fifteen?!" The thought of him possibly mating a minor made his breakfast threaten to make a reappearance. Sure it wasn't completely illegal seeing as Harley himself was under the age of eighteen but he could have still been prosecuted if the omega's parents saw it fit. While Harley was trying to keep his breakfast down, his alpha was grumbling in his head about having to wait so long to properly mate to the kid but that didn't mean it would have to stop them from platonic touching. But Harley wasn't interested, now he knew the kid was a minor he was going to be staying as far away from him as he could so he wouldn't be tempted by his admittedly alluring scent.

"I mean," Flash sneered, "Penis over there somehow tricked the teachers into letting him skip a year. I don't know how he did it, no way he's smart enough to get into this school on his own let alone skip a grade. His family probably sold everything they owned to bribe the school, it's probably why they're so poor."

Harley barely resisted the urge to bare his teeth at that, instead choosing to clench his teeth together and stare at the oblivious alpha. How could he say such things with no remorse, with no guilt? He wasn't as gullible as to believe any of the bullshit that came out of the idiot's mouth but if Harley was going to play his part and protect himself from further hurt, he would need the protection that such a feared alpha would bring. Harley himself was no pushover either but he would much rather go about his plan without making himself look like a bully like a certain cassowary sitting beside him. Mentally sighing to himself, Harley hated the next words that came out of his mouth, apologising to every diety out there. "Well, I'm inclined to believe ya, no way a rock pigeon, especially an omega, could get into such a good school like this on his own."

Smelling the subtle change in the little omega's scent, Harley resorted to cussing himself out with every insult he knew. He didn't even know why he was so invested in the poor pigeon, it must be some stupid instinct thing that he had no control over. Nodding to himself, he settled on that as the reasoning that he felt so protective over him, not acknowledging that traitorous part of his brain that denied that statement. 

"You know Harley, I think that you and I are going to get on just fine," Flash butted in, ignoring the teachers urging for the to start settling down. Although the smug alpha tried to whisper, it was said a bit too loudly for it to be meant just for Harley, and he had his suspicions that it was meant t harm the innocent angel sitting at the front. Reeling from his thoughts, Harley scolded himself, he wasn't supposed to think of the omega like that yet, he didn't even know his real name yet and he refused to call such an innocent-looking creature _penis_ of all things. Almost groaning in frustration, Harley quickly pushed those thoughts away and turned to study the sweet-smelling creature in front of him.

Freezing, Harley suddenly saw himself suddenly staring into chocolate brown eyes which were swirling with too many emotions for him to count. It was like the little omega wore his heart on his sleeve, but at that moment Harley was grateful for it because the blush he got in response to his analysing stare was simply delicious. As he stared into the beautiful eyes of the angel in front of him, he was distantly aware of the round beta calling his friends name.

Peter. The name suited him. 

He winced right along with Peter as the American Woodcock landed an especially hard punch to Peter's arm and had him snapping his attention away from Harley. Something from deep within his instincts grumbled at that and he had to grapple with his alpha for control. Clenching his fists and gritting his teeth, Harley quite rudely told his alpha to fuck off and stop fighting him. His alpha was not happy with that and started demanding that they make the beta back off and stop him from hurting something as fragile as an omega. Rolling his eyes, he gained enough control to shove his alpha and its whining away. What was so special about Peter that it made his alpha speak up for once and make it want to defend it with all it had?

Turning away from the whisperings in front of him, he lost himself into the lecture the teacher was giving and failed to notice the glances Peter kept shooting towards him.

With 10 minutes to go until the end of the lesson, Harley was more than ready to go home despite his school day only just starting. However, he perked up when he heard the teacher mention about having a surprise for the class.

Peter heaved a sigh and Harley's eyebrows lowered, head tilting to the side slightly, did he not want to know what the teacher had planned?

"Mr Parker, are you paying attention?" A sharp voice came from the front.

He turned his head and Harley was delighted to see that adorable pink blush across his face again.

"Yes sir," Peter mumbled.

"Good, now as I was saying, I have received confirmation from all of your guardians to bring you all on a trip to Oscorp Labs tomorrow-" 

The class erupted into excitable chatter at the prospect of going to one of the world's leading scientific research companies. Harley, however, was dismayed. Tony had ranted and raved to Harley about Oscorp for hours, calling them all kinds of insults, saying they were dirty cheaters who used underhanded tactics but he could never prove it. Harley was not going to enjoy the lecture about "watching his back in enemy territory". Mentally groaning to himself, he automatically found himself drawn to Peter, becoming unexplainably happy at the sight of Peter's wide grin and sparkling eyes. It made him start to resent Peter for having this effect on him.

Eyes shutting for a moment so he could gather himself and push Peter from his mind, Harley took a deep breath through his mouth so he wouldn't smell Peter's scent. How was it possible that one singular person could capture his attention so thoroughly? Hopefully, it was a one-week thing and he would get bored of it soon.

Looking to his left, he noticed that Flash had a faraway look in his eyes and a cruel smirk. He would need to watch that, he seemed to have a mean streak dedicated for Peter. Although Harley couldn't risk his social status so he was limited in what he could do if Flash did take things too far. Quickly morphing his face into a smirk when Flash looked at him, he adopted a confident aura, hoping to scare off Flash before he became too cocky to start anything with Harley. Harley was a lot bigger than the other alpha but that didn't make Flash any less dangerous, his species was known for being exceedingly aggressive with the slightest provocation. 

When the bell finally rang, Flash was out of his seat and dogging the back of Peter's heels in a rush, barely letting the boy get five steps out of the classroom before grabbing the back of his backpack and dragging him to a secluded corner. Harley rose from his seat and followed them at a sedate pace, knowing Flash was expecting him to take part in it so he could be initiated into the higher social groups of the school.

How Flash had manhandled Peter into this corner without a single person noticing, Harley didn't know. He leaned against the corner of the corridor, watching the proceedings while also looking out for any teachers that may come this way. Flash crowded into Peter's space and although Harley was too far away to hear exactly what was being said, he could tell how awful it must have been just judging by Peter's facial expressions. He was an open book and it made his alpha want to protect him all the more. Growling at his thoughts, Harley turned back to the scene happening in front of him with impassive eyes.

Then Flash did something unforgivable in the eyes of a proper alpha. Harley shifted, his wings fighting to flare out and a deep growl crawling up his throat. How dare he. How _dare_ he. When the cry of pain had left the omega's mouth, it had Harley's alpha frothing at the bit, ready to attack the alpha who had slammed Peter into the wall. Thankfully, Harley had a good grip on his instincts and he was only just able to ignore the screeching of his enraged alpha and not act upon it and charge at the aggressive alpha.

He sucked in a breath when he saw Peter's wings shudder slightly and a glare came to his face. Harley hid a smirk into his hand when he caught some of the hissed words that came from Peter's mouth. Although he was starting to resent Peter for making his alpha develop all these protective urges towards him, he couldn't deny that the boy didn't have some serious balls. Even in the face of danger, he would talk back and try anything to get out of the situation.

"Flash. Back off. Now," came the hissed demand from Peter.

The bully looked back at Harley in amusement, "Did you hear that Keener? The little omega thinks he can threaten me. How cute." With no warning Flash punched Peter in the stomach, making Harley wince along with Peter. That looked very painful and he pitied the boy, although some savage part of his brain was telling him how Peter deserved it for using dirty tricks to worm his way into his protective instincts. Unable to ignore the strong protective instincts that should have been hardwired into every alpha, Harley set out to help in the only way he could think of without outing himself as weak-willed.

"Flash." 

Panting, Flash looked over at Harley, "What Keener?"

He bit his tongue to stop the snarl that wanted to burst forth, the other boy had not only hurt an alpha but was now purposely blind to the disgust and anger that was displayed in his eyes, what an idiot.

"Teacher."

"Shit," he looked at Peter, who was still breathless on the floor, one last time before scampering off. "Come on Keener!"

Harley hesitated a moment, battling with his instincts yet again. He glanced over the omega who had now fallen to the floor and deemed him alright, quickly fleeing the scene with Flash. He could already feel a headache coming on from his alpha's harping.

* * *

Harley didn't see Peter for the rest of the day because they didn't share any other classes on that particular day. He was glad they didn't though because Harley wouldn't have been able to control himself if he saw the pink marks left behind on his face from where Flash hit him.

Sighing, he trudged out of the classroom, quickly making his way to his locker and managing to avoid all the curious stares of his year mates. Once he had grabbed what he needed out of his locker he jogged out of the school, immediately seeing where Happy has parked thanks to Tony's inability to buy anything that remotely blends in. Rolling his eyes, he climbed into the car and wasn't surprised to see that Happy only looked at him once before starting the car and beginning their one hour journey back to Stark Tower.

As the buildings flew by, Harley stared at his phone, debating whether or not to press the call button. He sighed and gathered all of his courage just to press one button. It rang four times before a voice came from the other end.

"Harley!"

Despite being reluctant to show any weakness in front of Happy, Harley smiled his first genuine smile since he got to New York. "Hey Abby, how's everything over there?"

"Amazing! Ya are not gonna believe this! Right, so today I managed to get 100% on my fractions test!"

Harley gasped dramatically into the phone, "Such lies! The Abby I know struggles with fractions, what have ya done with my sister?" It was worth making himself sound ridiculous in front of Happy as he could hear the delighted giggles on the other end of the line.

"I've made her realise that if she ever wants to be as smart and amazin' as her annoyingly clever older brother, she would need to study because not everybody has a 3 million IQ."

"Well I'm glad that you think highly of me but if I had that high of an IQ then my brain would melt because of the overwhelming amount of-"

"Yeah yeah Mr Smarty, I get it-" There were some shouts in the background and he could _feel_ the eye roll coming from Abby,"- anyway, I gotta go, ma has a new lover this week and they always argue, my bet is he isn't gonna last the week."

"Alright Abs, I'll speak to ya later, take care now and then you're goin' to explain to me why you're phonin' me at half-past two when you could be in school. It's half three here so I'm done with school however you are not."

He cut off her excuses with a grin and a hasty goodbye. He sighed as he schooled his features back into something neutral his mind going a mile a minute as the tower came into view, Tony had said that they would be doing some work in the lab today. Lab work with Tony was always fun as they could help each other and bounce ideas off of each other all while exchanging sarcastic remarks and quips, those days were the best as he learned a lot from Tony.

Happy quickly pulled into the garage, not bothering to walk him to the elevator this time. Rolling his eyes, Harley stepped out of the car and into the elevator. "Hey FRIDAY."

"Hello Harley, Boss is in the lab waiting for you, would you like me to take you there?"

"If you could FRIDAY, ya always know where I need to be."

"It's because we are connected," FRIDAY said smugly.

"Did Tony tell ya to say that?" Harley demanded, his face going warm at the memory of when he first met Tony all those years ago.

FRIDAY didn't give him a response, instead choosing to just open the elevator doors to reveal Tony's smirking face. The slightly shorter man was covered in grease and who knows what else from the hours he had been down here. "Hey kid, " Tony greeted.

"Hey Tony," He responded, throwing his bag to the side and sliding over to his bench that held various little projects. Tony hadn't allowed him to work on anything important until Harley "Proved to him that he could make something better than the potato gun he had made when he was 10". He picked up a robot he was making based off of DUM-E, it was a smaller version that he had managed to program to respond to voice controls but it still had some major glitches.

He picked up the new laptop Tony had gotten him and plugged in the robot he had called POTAT-O after his very first working contraption. It stood for Pathetically Organic Technologically Advanced Target One, as the main purpose of it was to be a target for Tony to practice his repulsor shots at.

"How was your day then? Wait on second thought don't tell me, I can just get FRIDAY to hack into the school and watch it for myself."

Panic bubbled up in Harley's chest, he did not doubt that if Tony saw that footage then he would see Flash beating up Peter while Harley himself did nothing and he was certain that Tony would not be impressed but Tony wouldn't understand his reasoning. "Wouldn't that make ya a pervert though? Watching hours of footage of children go about their day?" He threw out in a panic instead.

Tony let out a curse as he hit his head off the car he was working underneath. "Jesus christ kid don't do that to me because first of all, I don't appreciate it. Second of all, I could just take away your toys so don't push your luck."

Harley just laughed and he ended up telling Tony all about his day, leaving out the part about Peter but telling him about his lessons and the Oscorp field trip. As expected, that started Tony on a large rant about how much he despised Norman Osborn because he was a "dirty cheater" who apparently "bought his way in" and that Stark Industries was "much more impressive and they should come here instead", where Harley didn't fail to point out that he had never offered them to come here. That sent Tony off again about how he didn't want a bunch of slimy and snotty kids in his tower.

"Don't change the subject though! Did you meet any hotties?" Tony wiggled his eyebrows.

Harley gagged, "please never say that again, and no, I did not."

"Harley's elevated heart rate seems to suggest otherwise Boss," FRIDAY interrupted.

"You installed FRIDAY with scanners?!"

Tony just nodded smugly, "So, who caught little Harley's eye"

"Nobody!"

"Sure kid, FRIDAY do me a favour and look through the footage of Harley at school and tell me who it is."

"Tony! That's an invasion of privacy you perv!"

"According to several research papers on how humans respond to attraction, Harley seems to have taken an interest in Peter Benjamin Parker." FRIDAY interrupted again.

"FRIDAY, ya have it all wrong!"

Tony glared at Harley, "You're in denial, FRIDAY is never wrong. FRIDAY don't listen to him, you're perfect."

Rolling his eyes, Harley went back to working on his robot, tuning out everything else. All in all, it wasn't a bad day.

* * *

Oscorp was nowhere near as impressive as Stark Industries.

Sure it had everything it needed to have to function as a lab, but that's as far as it went. Their projects were cool though, even Harley had to admit that the biological engineering on the spiders was very impressive.

Harley wasn't paying much attention to the projects though, he was stealthily taking glances at Peter, who had somehow broken his wing at the top joint. It made his heartbreak, there was a high possibility that Peter would never fly again, yet here he was, walking around like nothing was wrong and he wasn't in excruciating pain. Harley admired him for that and gave in to his instincts for the day, distracting Flash whenever he even thought about targeting Peter.

He was having fun though, mostly because Peter's smiles were dazzling and he lost his breath every time he did it. Growling at his thoughts, Harley turned away from Peter and tried to sort out his thoughts, he did NOT like Peter, his alpha just saw it as a younger and more vulnerable omega who won't protect himself and that's why he was getting all these feelings. He nodded to himself, watching Peter out the corner of his eye. He frowned when Peter jerked back and slapped something on his hand as if he got bit.

Harley shrugged and went on learning about the various projects, it would be just like Oscorp to be dirty and lax enough to contaminate all their projects by letting flies in. He laughed to himself as he thought about what Tony would say if he ever told him that.

Harley was so busy with his thoughts that he failed to notice a pair of eyes staring down at him from above.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it folks, I am working on how to properly portray Tony as it's not my strong suit and I couldn't send the file to my beta this week for help so I got a bit stuck, but I hope you enjoyed it anyway.
> 
> See you next week lovelies!


	7. Anxiety

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, welcome back lovelies! I am so sorry that this chapter is more than a week or so late but with the schools opening again and the passing grades for exams going up, I've just not had any time but I am working on my time management so I can return to writing weekly as soon as possible!
> 
> I also went back to my previous chapters because Harley's accent was atrocious and for some reason was only there for half the time, so I have done my best to fix it.
> 
> As always, comments are much appreciated and don't forget to check out my lovely Beta's page!
> 
> QUICK TRIGGER WARNING: Peter has an anxiety attack in this chapter and I don't want to trigger anyone so please just skip that section.
> 
> Enjoy! :)

The Oscorp trip went better than Peter was expecting, all things considered.

After getting over the initial awe of being inside such a prestigious and developed lab, Peter managed to push away the pain that was slowly crawling its' way through his wing joint and take in the various experiments that were happening all around him. They weren't allowed into the private labs for obvious reasons, but even the main lobby was nothing to scoff at as the results of previous experiments were posted all around, experiments that had changed the entire field of science.

The only thing that made the trip miserable for him was when that spider had bitten him. Peter rubbed the red and irritated bump on his hand with a grimace, that bite had hurt. One of the genetically modified spiders had bitten him so there's no telling what kind of venom it could have injected into Peter's body. As if on cue, the bite throbbed and fatigue made its way through his body and Peter was grateful that he was already sitting down on the school bus that would return him to Midtown.

Barely managing to summon the energy to raise his arm to wipe away the sweat beading on his head, Peter slumped in his seat to ponder what was happening to him. Without knowing what kind of spider bit him Peter couldn't figure out if this was just side effects from the strong painkillers he was on or if the spider had been venomous and the venom was slowly killing him. Surely Oscorp wouldn't keep deadly spiders in a packed area where they knew children would be walking through, right? So it must be the pain killers flushing out of his system, Peter thought decidedly.

The bus finally came to a stop and Peter watched as MJ and Ned ran off the bus, whispering to each other about something or the other and leaving him behind on his own. He wouldn't let that ruin his day though, as he got up from his seat, managing to dodge the leg Flash stuck out in an attempt to trip him, and made his way off of the bus. Peter took a deep breath and scampered down the familiar streets and away from the school bus before Flash could catch up to him. So far Flash hadn't bothered him but Peter wasn't willing to push his luck.

A sharp ringing sound came from his pocket and Peter let out a soft curse as he struggled to keep a grip on his ringing phone. He wiped his sweaty palm on his jeans and walked towards a building to lean against it for support while he checked why his ringtone was going off. He blinked down at his phone when a notification came up telling him that he only had ten minutes to get to the subway station or he was going to miss his ride. A stream of curses that would surely get him a lecture from his Aunt May burst forth from his mouth as he read the alarm and stumbled away from the wall in panic, crying out as he bumped his broken wing against a wall.

His vision swam for a second as his knees gave out and he fell to the ground with a groan. Thankfully, nobody else was around to witness his display of weakness because they surely would have kicked him while he was already down. He shut his eyes as he kneeled there feel me nauseous as time went on, these pain killers were knocking him on his ass. Feeling the dizziness and nauseousness dissipate after a few minutes, Peter slowly pulled himself to his feet and groaned in frustration. Now he only had a few minutes to get to his destination or he would have to walk home, and he was in no state to do that.

Parker luck strikes once again huh?

Deciding to at least try and get there on time, Peter tried to push back the clammy feel of his skin and the ache of fatigue in his muscles. He needed to talk to his Aunt about getting him on some weaker painkillers because this was just getting ridiculous now. He leaned heavily against the wall as he started to walk in the direction of the subway, he _had_ to make it because if he was forced to walk all the way home then he wasn't going to make it in one piece. At that thought, Peter picked up the pace until he was stumbling along various walls at a jogging pace, desperately trying to make it.

He burst out of the back alley, gulping large mouthfuls of air to try and get some oxygen into his lungs because he _couldn't breathe._

The subway station entrance loomed tauntingly just a few feet away but Peter no longer had the energy to climb down all of those stairs. He was just so _exhausted_. Mentally berating himself, Peter sucked in a huge breath and weakly pushed himself off of the wall and into the crowd, quickly getting swept away with them as his vision went hazy again and the world was spinning. He must have been emitting some strong 'distressed omega' scent because suddenly there was an alpha bluejay gripping onto his elbow asking if he was okay.

He looked around at the crowd, panic beginning to bubble up in his chest. Why were there so many people? Any of them could be out to hurt him and he would be powerless against it. His hands began to shake and he looked down in confusion since when was it normal for hands to shake on their own? He looked up at the other man who was waiting for an answer, what did he want again?

Why was it getting harder to breathe, was it getting colder? It certainly felt like it but he was still sweating. How interesting. A small amount of pressure from his elbow had him looking back up at the older man.

** (TRIGGER WARNING STARTS HERE!) **

The man was shorter than he was and in no way threatening with his hazel eyes but the scent of the man had Peter shrieking and roughly pulling his arm away from the other. His throat closed up as his eyes darted wildly around for an escape. 

He couldn't breathe. _Why can't he breathe?_

Peter turned quickly, falling to the side as his vision swam again, there were now people crowding him, all asking him questions in concern.

_Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong._

There was somebody else touching him, he didn't want to be touched.

_Getawaygetawaygetaway._

He wrenched out of the person's grip, his senses screaming at him as another person grabbed onto his shoulder.

_I can't breathe. WHY CAN'T I BREATHE?!_

He turned and bit the offending hand, his mouth filled with the metallic taste of blood. People around him were screaming. 

_Stopstopstopstop._

There was another person right up in his face, he could smell the coffee on their breath. They were shouting at him and waving their arms about. 

_Too loud. Too loud. Too loud._

He envied the passerby's at that moment, they could breathe, they weren't getting shouted at.

_Too hot. Too hot. Too hot._

Was it getting hotter? It certainly felt like it, nobody else seemed to notice.

_Shutupshutupshutupshutup._

There was another voice shouting now, gaining the attention of a few other nearby citizens.

_Escapeescapeescapeescape._

There was too many people here, not enough room. He had to leave.

_He still couldn't breathe._

He felt like he was chocking, he was going to pass out.

_Too much._

His hands were trembling, were they supposed to do that?

_STOP!_

The world came crashing back to him and he cried out as his vision went black around the edges and he pushed himself away from the crowd on fatigued limbs. 

_Please, go away. Too many people._

An ache made its way through his chest as he continued to push his way through a sea of startled people.

_Hurthurthurthurt._

A whimper made it's way up to his throat, these people were out to hurt him. All of them, he was going to be attacked again and they would break his other wing.

_Safesafesafesafe._

He pulled himself into an alleyway which was overflowing with trash, perfect for hiding in.

_Scaredscaredscared._

Huddling down, Peter sat there for hours, lost in his world of unease and panic. With every shuffle that came from the other end of the alley, Peter would be sent spiralling down again.

_They're coming for us again!_

Tears finally sprung up in his eyes as he sobbed quietly to himself. Nobody was around to see him so he let his guard down, letting his emotions run rampant. He couldn't do this. There were too many people. Too many opportunities to snatch him up and hurt him. 

Eventually, his trembling and sobs died down. He could breathe again. He wasn't soo hot anymore. The voice that had been whispering to him disappeared and he was left alone again. This was almost as bad as the crowd. Almost.

He gulped in the fresh air as he could finally breathe again and the black tinge to the edges of his vision finally left as he got the oxygen he needed. He leaned against a wall and sighed up to the sky, almost bursting into tears again as he took note of how dark the sky was. How was he supposed to get home? He couldn't go back into that crowd again and there was no way this wouldn't repeat on the subway, where the whole thing started.

What had set him off? He had been around other alpha's all day, even strangers so why did it happen now?

Quickly googling it, Peter looked at his phone in dismay and he was numb.

An anxiety attack.

Of course.

Google had told him that it could take a while to build up but when it finally overflowed, little could prevent it and it could be over quickly or it could last as long as his one did.

A fucking anxiety attack, he hadn't had one since Ben-

No. No more of that.

**(TRIGGER WARNING OVER)**

Knocking his head against the wall, Peter tried to gather himself. He felt both mentally, emotionally and physically drained. 

How was he getting home again?

Oh yeah, he was walking.

Scrubbing his face wearily, Peter tried to come up with a plan. His fare for the subway wouldn't be near enough to get a taxi back home, and Ned lived too far away for his parents to come and give him a lift, plus Peter was hesitant to make them come out here just to drop him home.

So no, he would just have to suck it up and walk home smelling like this horrific alley.

Just as he was pulling himself out of the various mystery substances, he heard a low and inquiring growl coming from around the corner. Peter froze as his fight and flight instincts battled back and forth and he ended up just freezing in place, turning his wide eyes towards the source of the growling.

The quiet footsteps came closer to the corner and Peter backed away from the entrance, trapping himself against two huge dumpsters. He let out a weak warning growl for the stranger to back off, he was in no mood to entertain company and if worst came to worst, he wasn't afraid to bite through a few fingers like carrot sticks.

His omega was waffling on in his head about something or the other but he tuned it out, he couldn't afford to be distracted right now. If he was, then he could potentially lose more than his other wing.

There was a familiar scent wafting through the alleyway under the smell of rotting food and dumpster liquid. He shook his head and sent out another warning growl, feeling very pleased when he heard the shuffling of feet stop dead in their tracks. 

Feeling more confident, Peter began to stride forward, leaning heavily on the wall for support. He was his person, he would stand up for himself and prove to everyone that he wasn't some weak omega that could be pushed away. Getting angrier with every step, Peter finally made it to the corner and growled again.

"Back off."

There was a small shuffle before the smell of smoke and sandalwood hit him full force. He blinked in shock, taking a small step back as he recognised the scent. But it couldn't be, why would he be in this part of the town. And why would he willingly come near Peter without trying to assert his power over him at every chance he got?

He heard a sharp inhale before a tall figure stepped out. He was looking like every bit as gorgeous as he had earlier that day, his massive red-brown wings flared behind him protectively as he took in the scene in front of him. His gorgeous ice blue eyes widened as he took in Peter's dishevelled state.

"Harley?"

Fate had fucked him over this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
> 
> I will either be posting the same length chapters every two weeks or longer chapters every month due to the workload from school that I'm on and the stress for the upcoming exams which I feel very unprepared for, let me know which updating schedule you prefer! I hope you guys will understand and will still stick around!


	8. Wonders

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, thank you all for the support on this story, I can't believe that you guys have given me so many kudos on the first story I've posted on this site and nearly 2,000 hits. I did not expect that reaction this early so thank you all! Please forgive me, I know it's like 4 days late but I tried! I also fell sick so It's difficult for me to find the motivation to carry on.
> 
> Thank you especially to my wonderful beta who has a story on his profile you should definitely go read. It's under the name a_SodaPop. Thank you for putting up with my last-minute writing and panics and for not letting me get TOO distracted.
> 
> I will now be uploading shorter chapters every 2 weeks because of the sheer amount of homework and exam revision I'm going to have to do over the course of the year.
> 
> Enjoy :)

[(My beta's page, you should check it out!)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_sodapop/pseuds/a_sodapop)

Watching Peter had to be one of Harley's new favourite pastimes. He loved the way that Peter's face would light up when he found something interesting or learned something new, the way his brow furrowed when he didn't understand something and the way dimples would appear on his cheeks when he smiled at finally figuring out the equations. It was intriguing to Harley because Peter seemed to wear his heart on his sleeve, you could read his body language like an open book.

However, during Harleys stalk- _interest_ of Peter, he noticed that Peter became a lot more fatigued and exhausted, already practically dead on his feet. His alpha whined in concern, the little omega looked constantly on the verge of passing out. God knows how he was able to stay upright for as long as he was but thankfully the tour was coming to end and they would back on the bus soon enough where hopefully Harley could keep Flash from bothering him too much.

"Hey, Keener!" Flash called from his left.

Turning his head towards the entrance of the building where they were being herded out towards, he spotted Flash smearing something brown substance into a small beta's hair, the poor boy's black wings flapping wildly in an attempt to throw Flash off of him. Hiding his grimace, Harley walked towards them and the smell of dog poo hit him and he nearly gagged.

_What the fuck._

He plastered on a fake smug smile and stood next to Flash, "I think tha' should be 'is new smell, it certainly smells better than 'is natural scent."

A loud laugh ripped from Flash and he had to bend over to keep himself standing, inadvertently releasing the beta who scampered away as soon as he could, leaving the howling Flash behind. 

"That- that was a good one Keener!"

Harley smirked at Flash. His plan was falling into place and now nothing could touch him, nobody could get close, nobody could hurt him.

Eventually Flash managed to pull himself together enough to walk back to the bus. Harley noticed that the boy from earlier had managed to get the muck out of his hair and was sending the two of them glares from the safety of his seat. He merely raised an eyebrow at the boy and sat in one of the middle rows of the bus next to Flash. From this angle, he got a very good view of Peter, who was looking more pale and shaky by the second.

His alpha whimpered in his head, trying to urge him to leave the pathetic alpha behind and comfort the clearly sick omega.

_Traitor._

To distract himself from the pressuring from his alpha, Harley threw himself into a dull conversation with Flash. It had to be one of the most boring experiences of Harley's life and he would do anything to be back at home with his family.

After a while of enduring torture in the form of Flash Thompson, the bus finally came to a stop. Sighing with relief Harley made a move to get up but he was quickly pushed out of the way by Flash who rushed to the front of the bus and sat in one of the front seats. Harley raised an eyebrow as people started getting off of the bus but Flash made no indication that he was going to move an inch. Realisation dawned in Harley's eyes as his wings drooped in horror. It seems that Harley wasn't entirely successful in getting Flash to leave Peter alone for the day. He sucked in a breath and fought to keep his eyes open. It was like watching a train wreck.

He waited with bated breath as Peter stood up, visibly going paler and shaky, looking like he was on the verge of passing out. Peter began to walk down the aisle and Harley cringed when Flash suddenly stuck his foot out, seeking hurt the poor, sickly omega who has already been through enough. Shaking himself from those embarrassing thoughts, Harley tuned back into reality just in time to see Peter nimbly dodge the foot.

Dropping his jaw in shock, Harley took a few seconds to comprehend what he had witnessed. Surely, in his state, he would have tripped over Flash's foot. But he hadn't, he hadn't even looked at it properly, he just jumped over it like a freaking _spider_ and avoided it completely, almost as if something had warned him. Apparently, Peter was more aware of his surroundings than he let on. Then _why_ would he allow Flash to push him around?

"Come on Keener." Flash bit out, a frown marring his already unpleasant features.

Harley plastered a smirk on his face, not needing to fake his amusement at the turn of events, "What's wrong suga', little omega get the best of ya?"

Flash's face quickly turned red and Harley was concerned that he was choking or something, but that fear was alleviated when he began spluttering out nonsense about how _Penis_ did not get the better of him. How he would pay him back for that little act. 

"I swear, one of these days, Parker will get what's coming to him!"

It took him a second to figure out who Flash was referring to when he said "Parker" but he quickly figured out that it was Peter's last name. "Peter Parker," seemed like his family was really into alliteration.

There was no telling what was going on in Flash's head but when he suddenly grabbed Harley's arm tightly and dragged him off the bus, Harley was more than a little worried for his own safety but his alpha was pleased to note that Peter seemed long gone, no matter how much his _sweet_ scent lingered in the air. He jerked sideways and he scowled at Flash.

"Do ya mind not yankin' my arm outta my socket?"

The only response he got was an exaggerated eye roll. 

"Do ya mind at least tellin' me where ya takin' me?"

"Look, Keener will you just shut up a second and stop your whining?"

Harley's wings flared out, effectively stopping all movement. His eyes were like steel as he stared at Flash. 

_How dare he. How DARE this weak alpha hurt our intended and then try to control us when he is obviously weaker. He had no right!_

His eyes narrowed, they were now standing in an alleyway. Good, they were less likely to be disturbed now. Everything he had been holding back came flying to the forefront of his mind. Flash bullying Peter, Flash calling him Penis, Flash suggesting to rape Peter, Flash's overall behaviour to Peter.

He stepped right into the other alpha's space, using the few inches he had on him to his advantage. His wings flared out aggressively behind him and a low rumble started in the back of his throat. He snarled at Flash, getting right into his face.

"I can accept that ya treat others as beneath ya, and it was for tha' reason ONLY that I became ya friend. However, I will NOT accept the same bullshit from ya, who is very much the weaker of us two."

It was evident that Flash didn't like that as he pushed forward, putting his chest right against Harley's. He bared his teeth, his considerable smaller wings stretching out, trying to meet the length of Harley's own. A weaker growl was produced by Flash and Harley fought to keep a straight face. It sounded more like a squawk than a growl. 

"I don't know what games you're trying to play with me Keener but I will not put up with this!"

The slightly smaller alpha then used the wall behind him as leverage to push himself at Harley, managing to bring them both to the ground. Harley grunted at the impact as it left him momentarily winded. He growled again and rolled over so he was straddling Flash and used his body weight to pin the other down, the other alpha's wings pinned between the floor and his body.

"What the fuck Flash!"

The other just growled and tried to buck the other off, only managing to slightly jostle Harley. Flash's head fell around wildly as he bared his teeth and growled, his pinned wings shuddering and straining to break free. When they failed to break free he roared with frustration and began trying to headbutt Harley.

"Get OFF of me!" Flash seethed, eyes going a bit more feral with every second passing.

"No! Calm down!"

"You started this!"

"Stop being such a fuckin' dick then!"

"That's rich coming from you Keener! At least my breed gives me an excuse!"

The sheer amount of stupidity in that sentence had Harley slackening his grip and accidentally allowing Flash to have the opportunity to break free and shove Harley off him. Flash stood up quickly and took several steps away from Harley.

"You're a fucking psycho Keener. Don't come near me again! I'm gonna tell everyone what you've done to me."

Harley began to pull himself up as well and tried to digest Flash's words. A few days. He had only been here a few days and he had already fucked everything up for himself and thrown himself into trouble. With the influence that Flash has in the school, it would be no time at all before the news of the fight got out and all sorts of rumours would start about Harley. Great. A few days and he had already made a fool out of himself and ostracized himself from the higher social circles.

"Don't be a baby."

Flash looked at him incredulously and scampered away down the alley and out of sight. Harley sighed and ran his hand through his hair in frustration. Tony was going to kill him for this one. Deciding to walk around town before Happy came to pick him up, Harley found a cosy looking cafe. When he walked in he was immediately greeted with a friendly smile from the cashier that set him at ease. There were couches along the back wall with throw rugs on the backs and Harley could see multiple people curled up with their shoes off. The walls were lined with lots of photos of similar looking people which led Harley to believe this was a family-owned business.

As he approached the counter the flamingo behind the counter smiled at him again. They had a beautiful afro with pink and green streaks running through it, giant hoops in their ears and an apron on which read "I use they/them pronouns".

"Hiya love, what can I get you?" They greeted with a pleasant British accent.

Harley took a moment to assess the menu hanging above the front desk and display cases. "The sweet tea here any good?"

The flamingo leaned in closer to Harley, "between you and me, my mum isn't very good at making it."

A loud crash came from the small kitchen behind the counter and a small woman appeared, her box braids flying as she held her wooden spoon up threateningly towards her child. She had a playful glare on her face.

"Say that again Armani and you'll not get that raise you've been wanting!"

Armani gasped and turned around to face their mother with a mock look of outrage. "You wouldn't!"

"Just watch!"

Rolling their eyes, Armani turned back to Harley with an easy-going smile. "Forget what I said, our sweet tea is just _so good,_ " They said sarcastically.

Harley smiled at them, feeling a lot more at ease with the obvious banter and comfortable atmosphere. "If tha' the case then I'll have a sprite and a jam scone."

Armani's mother laughed and turned back to the kitchen shouting out a quick, "Good choice!"

Armani drew his attention back to them, "Just go and sit down love, I'll bring your stuff over when it's ready."

Harley smiled at them, "Thanks."

"You're welcome!"

Looking around, Harley chose a window seat in the corner. When he sat down he noticed a commotion outside that piqued his interest but ultimately decided not to get involved because he had already gotten in enough trouble today. When his food and drink arrived, Harley quickly thanked Armani's mother, whose name was Shanice, and began on his homework.

He lost himself in the flow of it for hours, enjoying the soft chatter and warm temperature of the building. He blinked drowsily at his homework and realised with pride that he had finished it all. He slowly packed everything up and threw his rubbish in the bin. He shot a quick goodbye to the family of flamingos and headed out of the building. He pulled his coat tighter around him as he stepped out of the warm and into the frigid cold of New York at night.

As he began to push his way through the crowds and towards his pick up point, he picked up a familiar smell, although it had been thoroughly soured by the stench of fear and panic. He frowned as his alpha suddenly became alert and broke out of the daze of contentment it had been in. Who did that belong to? Why was it so familiar?

He frowned as he began to follow the strong scent. Something was wrong, the whole scent was tinged with fear and hurt. He broke into a run and it only took him a few minutes to track the scent in its highest concentration hidden among the overwhelming scent. It was a smart move, nobody would be able to find the scent unless they were directly looking for it or they were familiar with it. 

He paused when he heard a growl though, it sounded highly scared and on the edge of going feral. This could be a very dangerous thing to do but he couldn't just leave them all alone when they needed help. Then they spoke, and Harley was able to place exactly who it was that had his alpha straining to help. He really should have known. Peter was the only one who had ever made his alpha act like this.

He continued around the corner and let Peter see him fully, careful to look as least threatening as possible.

"Harley?"

Harley smiled gently at him and crouched down, silently urging Peter to sit down too because he looked like he has going to throw up and then pass out, not necessarily in that order.

"Hey Peter, how about ya jus' sit down? Ya not lookin' so good."

Harley wanted to coo over the frown that appeared on Peter's face but he kept his wits about him.

"Go away, Keener! It's not like you care!"

"I do-"

"Leave." With that, Peter's feral self took over as the last line as defence and he spread his uninjured wing defensively. 

"Shit!" Harley leapt up from his crouched position and backed several feet away.

A weak growl emerged from Peter's body as he began to slowly stumble forward on unbalanced feet. Harley couldn't contain the burst of laughter that came forth from him when the feral little omega slipped in the trash and started skidding towards Harley at an alarming pace. He managed to skid an impressive four feet before losing his balance and falling at Harley's feet. 

_Oh, this would be a perfect time to make a joke about him falling for me._

Peter's fallen form seemed to deflate and his tensed wings relaxed and he mumbled something from his position on the floor.

"What was tha' darlin'?"

A flaming red face was lifted from the floor and Peter's glare met his own surprised eyes.

"I said," he snapped, "looks like I fell harder for you than I intended."

_Oh...._

"Oh."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was it lovelies!
> 
> As always, any corrections on Harley's accent is much appreciated as well as any comments to help me fix any plotholes or such in the story.
> 
> Without further ado, I'll see you guys in two weeks with another chapter.
> 
> Take care! :)


	9. Why oh why?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So once again, I am late with this update because I keep forgetting about it and teachers bombard me with tests, but here I am with a hastily written chapter once again. Thank you all for your continued support!
> 
> As always, please go to my beta's page and check it out! It seriously is amazing and I could only HOPE to get anywhere near his skill level of writing. 
> 
> Enjoy!

[(Axel's page, go check it out!)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_sodapop/pseuds/a_sodapop)

Peter wanted the floor to open up and swallow him whole.

Not only had he turned _feral_ right in front of Harley Keener, who was quickly becoming one of his worst school bullies because of his friendship with Flash, but now he had also slipped in the trash and said _that_. The most embarrassing thing on the planet. Oh, _why_ couldn't he just keep his mouth shut for once? If he had then he wouldn't be in this predicament, he would still have a shred of his dignity left. But no, now Harley fucking Keener was looking down on Peter, literally, with a bemused expression.

On the bright side, slipping and falling on a mysterious substance that he would rather not think about had knocked some sense into him and he was able to come back from being feral, managing to just avoid attacking Harley.

He peeked up from his spot on the floor and nearly died at the amused expression Harley had on.

"Guess ya jus' couldn' help it huh?"

"Just help me up," Peter grumbled, taking Harley's offered hand to pull himself out of the dirt.

However, Harley pulled him just a little too far and he ended up bumping chests with him. A flush began to creep up his neck as he finally realised just how much _bigger_ Harley was than him. In every aspect too. Not only was he a good few inches taller than Peter himself but even when Harley's wings were furled, they were able to cover Peter's completely. An involuntary purr rumbled deep within his chest as a primal urge that Aunt May would be sure to scold him for acting on, was finally satisfied. Nobody had told him how good it felt to be held by an alpha. The close contact had even made the lingering sense of panic and feral fade way, only leaving slight trembling in his hands.

"Oh."

The body beneath him shifted and suddenly he was encased in warmth from all sides and the harsh glare of street lamps were easily blocked by large reddish-brown wings. His purring kicked up a notch and he vaguely noticed his sour, fear tinged scent slowly fade away to a sweeter and more contented one. Eyelids becoming heavy, Peter let himself relax for a little while after his emotional rollercoaster of a day. Today had been hell for Peter and it seemed like it was finally coming to an end.

"Didn' know ya would be purrin' darlin'"

And just like that, the moment was ruined.

It was like somebody had doused Peter in ice-cold water and reality came crashing down on him. What was he doing? This was Harley Keener, new best friend of his worst bully Flash and an asshole extraordinaire who turned a blind eye to those in need. Refuelled with anger, Peter hastily pushed away from the welcoming and strong warmth to glare at Harley, who looked at little more than startled.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Peter grit out.

"Wha' does it look like I'm doin'? Comfortin' an omega in need."

A short noise of frustration came from Peter's mouth as he was doing his best to glare the bigger man into submission, "Did it look like I needed your help, Keener?"

"Well yeah, the way I saw it, ya would've stayed there for hours!"

"Get it into your thick skull Keener! I don't need help, least of all from you!"

If it was possible, Harley looked a little hurt by that, "I wasn' gonna leave ya out here to freeze!"

"Oh my lord Keener, why would I want help from somebody who turns a blind eye to people in need, somebody who is exactly like Flash!"

Harley snarled, his wings vibrating for a second as his scent shifted to enraged. His eyes narrowed and he got all up into Peter's space, crowding him against the alley wall. "Don' ya ever say that' I'm like him again, ya hear me? I dropped his ass."

Peter's wings drooped as he tried to wrap his head around the information, his cast managing the hit the wall behind him. He flinched in pain as it made contact and the nauseating feeling came back. His fever reared it's ugly head again and he began to feel like he was going to throw up once again.

"Hey, ya alright darlin'? Ya lookin' awfully pale. I know I was talkin' about Flash but surely he ain't that bad to be worth - Oh wow okay, that's a lot of barf."

Peter gave him a deadpan look from where he was hunched over on his knees, the smell of sick tickling his nose, "Don't tell me you're squeamish of a little vomit?"

The disgusted look he got back was enough to make Peter crack up and the ice was broken.

"You're really not friends with Flash then?" Peter asked softly, wiping his mouth with a shaking hand.

"Not anymore."

"Well, that friendship was over nearly as quick as Flash is rumoured to cu-"

"Jesus Parker, do ya kiss ya mother with that mouth?"

"No, she's dead," Peter snorted.

Apparently, the joke wasn't as funny as he had thought because Harley had taken a step back with a horrified look.

"What? Best pal Flash didn't tell you that Penis Parker is an orphan?" Peter pointed out bitterly.

"I don' know what I was expectin' ya to be like, but it wasn' this."

Peter leaned heavily on the wall behind him as goosebumps broke out over his arms and he started to sweat buckets again. He took deep gulps of air to combat the next round of vomit that threatened to come up and spill all over Harley's shoes. He ignored Harley for the moment as pain spiked behind his eyes and he tipped his head back with a soft groan. It felt like he had the flu but a hundred times worse. He didn't even know what was causing this or why it had hit him so suddenly. Although he was still recovering from his anxiety attack, he shouldn't be feeling this sick from it and he had had his last dose of painkillers hours ago so it couldn't be that either.

"Parker?"

Peter whined, turning his head away from the loud voice. That had hurt, why did they need to be so loud?

"Peter?" Came a whispered response.

Peter groaned again as his stomach rolled and combine that with the splitting headache, well nobody could fault him for collapsing forward into the taller alpha.

"What do you eat? You weigh nothing!"

Peter mumbled something unintelligible and turned his face further into the neck of the other. His muscles loosed on their own as he tried his best to sink into the warm alpha who was like a human heater. Distantly he was aware of gentle hands manoeuvring him further into strong arms, carefully avoiding his wings and slowly picking him while making sure he wasn't in any pain.

He whined again as he felt one of those strong arms leave his side. Jesus, when did he get so needy? He was supposed to be strong and have complete control over his instincts but here he was, going soft and floaty at the first sign on care and comfort from an _alpha_. Pathetic. It did feel really nice to have someone to lean on for once though without feeling like he was bothering them unnecessarily.

Tuning back into the world, Peter could hear Harley arguing softly with someone on the phone. He wondered when he pulled that out, Peter hadn't felt him reach back to get it. Then again, Peter had been dead to the world for a little while.

"I know ya not my butler but can ya please jus' come pick me up?"

There was a loud sigh from the other side and something that sounded suspiciously like, "Should never have given you my number," before the call ended.

Peter didn't remember much after that, falling in and out of light sleep. The next thing he knew, there was a sleek, black car at the curb of the alley and the tinted window was rolled down to reveal an unhappy-looking man. 

"Kid, you can't be bringing in random omegas off the street. If he needs help just call an ambulance."

"Happy, please, he's not a random omega."

"Who is he then?"

The body shifted as the back door was opened and he was gently slid into the plush seats. He sighed happily and turned into the warmth, paying no attention to the rising tension between the two males.

"Nobody. Jus' drop it."

Happy's eyes narrowed, "FRIDAY?"

"It appears to be Mr Parker."

"Mr Parker as in the Peter Parker Harley had taken an interest in at school?" Happy questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"No! I didn' take an interest in him! Jus' drive Happy!"

A loud sigh came from the front, "Tony is going to have my ass for this. Jesus Christ, bringing a random kid into the tower is a big no-no. Something about germs or something. I don't know why we can't just drop him home."

"I don' know where he lives."

"I thought you were some super creepy stalker, how do you not know where he lives?"

"I'm no' a stalker!"

"If you say so," Happy smirked, rolling the partition up, leaving the two boys alone.

An awkward silence filled the back as Peter became slightly more aware of his surroundings and noticed the barely concealed tension in Harley's shoulders. Brown eyes met blue and something sparked between them. Some might mistake it for passion or assume it was the beginning of some cliche, sappy, fairy tale world romance story. But these two boys fully understood what that look meant and both of them braced for the oncoming argument that was inevitable. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's quite a bit shorter than my other ones, but I really didn't have time but I still needed to give you guys a chapter, so here is the rushed filler chapter. 
> 
> Anyways, constructive criticism is welcome and I respond to comments so please tell me what you think! 
> 
> Another huge, HUGE thank you to my wonderful beta who pointed out all my stupid shit and helped make it 10x better, so a big round of applause for him. Thank you! <3
> 
> See you next time lovelies! :)


	10. Resistance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OKAY, I KNOW AND I AM SO VERY SORRY!
> 
> I know I haven't updated in more than a month but that because of the No-No virus and the mess called the British Government with exams. ANYWHO here is a chapter that I have been working on for weeks, although it's still pretty rushed.
> 
> This is un-beta'd because my lovely and talented beta is very busy and it wasn't fair to make you guys wait any longer.
> 
> Enjoy! :)

The atmosphere in the car was visibly tense and uncomfortable. The only thing that could be heard was the low rumble of the engine and the agitated tapping of Peter's fingers on the door. Biting his lip, Peter darted a look over at Harley, who was looking completely unbothered. Peter's gaze turned from nervous to irritated in a second as another shiver wracked over his body and Harley continued to stare uninterestedly out of the tinted window.

"So you kidnap me just to sit in silence? Great plan Keener."

He could have been talking to a brick wall for all the reaction it got him. Harley just slowly turned his unimpressed stare towards the smaller male and raised his eyebrow inquisitively, still choosing to remain quiet.

"Have you gone deaf? Because I can sign to you if that's the case." Peter tried again.

"Ya know sign language?"

"Oh, so that gets a reaction but not me accusing you of kidnapping me?" Peter scoffed, levelling Harley with a hard stare, "You are one strange guy Keener."

"Harley."

"What?"

"Call me Harley, seeing as I saved ya butt out there."

The car went silent for a few moments before Peter relented. "Harley then," Peter grit out, "mind telling me exactly where we are going?"

The confused look he got back only served to make Peter more concerned.

"Ya mean ya don' know?"

"Know what, Keener?"

Laughter bubbled out from Harley, and even Peter had to admit that it was a pretty nice sound. 

"Ya didn' know that I live with Tony Stark? Ya must be blind as a bat."

Peter's mind drew a blank as another shiver passed over him and he viciously fought back another wave of nausea, the car looked very expensive and he did not want to have to pay for the cleaning if he vomited. Anyway, that wasn't important. What was important was what Harley had just said. He lived with Tony Stark. Tony freaking Stark. And they were headed to his house. Which meant Stark Tower. Which meant Peter was going to possibly see Tony Stark. Which meant that if Tony Stark was home, Peter was going to meet him smelling like garbage and looking a minute away from death. This was really bad.

"Tony Stark?" Peter echoed, blood draining from his face.

"Yeah! Of course, he might no- Woah! Hey, what's wrong?"

A warm hand gripped his chin, forcing Peter to lazily look into those gorgeous eyes. A small and affectionate chuckle resounded throughout the car.

"Well, I'm glad ya think my eyes are gorgeous, but I need ya to tell me what's wrong so I can fix it."

"Nothing." Peter slurred, his vision going fuzzy again.

"Darlin', tell me the truth," Harley ordered sternly.

Peter weakly pushed Harley's hands away from him, trying to muster up the energy to glare. "Don't try and play hero Keener. I know it eases some sense of misplaced guilt of yours but I don't need your help."

Harley just scoffed, grabbing at Peter's face again, "Yeah sure, ya didn' need my help. Ya were doing perfectly well on ya own in the dumpster emittin' pretty strong 'Help Me' pheromones."

"Whatever Keener, just get your hands off me."

Harley obliged and removed his hands, putting them up in surrender, "Alright, but if ya keel over and die, that's on ya." And just like that, Harley had no more interest in him and he went back to staring out the window. A strange ache built up in Peter's chest, though he couldn't begin to explain why. He felt like a toy being discarded, once playtime was over he no longer mattered. It shouldn't have hurt him as much as it did.

A sudden movement from his right caught his eye as he snapped his head over to watch at Harley loudly knock on the partition separating them from the driver, his hand covering his nose and mouth. 

"Hey, Happy could ya hurry it up? I don't know how much longer I can take smellin' all the pain and stress."

"Well just go back to canoodling and he should be right as rain."

"I wasn't canoodling with him Happy, and he doesn't want me to hug him and consent is important so no I will-"

He was cut short as the partition slid down, revealing a very irritated man who very much looked like he was going to strangle Harley. As the car rolled to a stop at a red light, he turned around and stared at Peter with a critical eye.

Contrary to popular belief, Happy was not a stupid man, nor was he unobservant. There was a reason Tony Stark had chosen him to be the head of security and it wasn't just because they had bonded over the years.

"If you don't do something about him before we get back to the tower then I'll be very unhappy. Now he looks minutes away from passing out and I do not want a sick kid coming to the tower, so either I take him to the hospital or you suck it up and calm him down before Tony notices anything okay? And judging by the way you refused to send him to the hospital earlier, I don't think you're as averse to cuddling as you make yourself out to be, so shut up and canoodle."

The partition then slid up again, leave a gobsmacked Harley and a thoroughly embarrassed Peter in its wake.

"Is he... always like that?"

Harley sighed and scrubbed his hand over his face," I'm afraid so, but he is never usually this intense. Ya scent must be gettin' to him more than he shows."

Peter bristled, "I'll have you know that my scent is perfectly fine thank you."

Harley gave him a strange and unreadable look, "How long has it been since ya presented?"

Peter huffed and looked away, managing to avoid answering the question for a few minutes before the silence got to him, "A few weeks."

"Ah, so ya not used to how it all works then."

"What do you mean? My Aunt educated me very well thank you," Peter sniffed.

"I'm sure she did, but I'm willin' to bet that she is neither an Alpha or an Omega, correct?"

"Yeah..." Peter agreed hesitantly, unsure of the direction this was going in.

"So she wouldn't be aware of everythin' the other two secondary genders are then."

"Explain," Peter demanded, eyes narrowing.

Harley sighed and dragged his hand through his hair, "I didn't think I was gonna have to give a basic anatomy lesson today but here goes." He cleared his throat before beginning, "So ya know how millions of years ago we developed wings because the land predators were too strong for us to deal with so we had to evolve into somethin' that could easily escape. Yeah well, with that we had also developed roles in our packs, designed to boost birthrates and the survival rates. Anyway, it's theorised that Alphas and Omegas were much more common back then as they were essential to pack life. Fast forward a couple of million years, Alpha and Omega presentations start droppin' because we don't live in packs anymore and betas are capable of livin' on their own without us. Anyway, that's not the important stuff. What is, is that our instincts are much stronger than that of Betas and therefore we are more in tune with each other because once upon a time, we were the very life of packs and the sole providers. So that is why ya scent affects us so much because ya body doesn't understand that ya are ya own person, it still thinks that ya need an alpha or you will die. Now we both know this isn't true but it is why most omegas pair with Alphas instead of Betas or other Omegas."

"So, I smell really bad to you because some old instincts in my body are yelling out for help because it hasn't evolved enough to know that I can fend for myself now?" Peter questioned, furrowing his brow as he tried to digest all of the information given to him.

"Exactly, so since ya in distress, my instincts and alpha are screamin' at me to help ya in any way I can but I can mask my scent as I am more experienced and I don't want to force ya to calm down as consent is a big must."

"Right, well I appreciate that just give me a second to digest all of that though because I am not feeling it today."

An almost pained whine came from Harley, "I know that ya hate me, but can ya please allow me to hold you? It's killin' me to leave ya like this."

"Like what," Peter snapped, "Weak and vulnerable. All you alphas are the same."

Harley winced, "I didn't think ya were the type to stereotype a group based on the actions of a few. But that wasn't what I meant, I hate seein' ya suffer while knowin' that there is something I could be doing to help."

"Oh," Peter exclaimed, his face growing hot. He couldn't believe he had just said that. Aunt May had raised him better than this, he knew better than to lump individuals into the same group based on the actions of a few. Damn, he was no better than the Islamophobic people who thought that all Muslims were terrorists. "Sorry," he whispered, looking down in shame, "do you... do you still want that hug?"

Instead of answering, Harley simply just unclipped Peter's seatbelt and gently lifted him until he was resting on Harley, his bad wing gently resting beside him. Harley then wrapped his muscular arms around him and used his wings to provide extra cover and warmth. Peter sighed, he felt better already, much more comfortable. It felt like when you were sitting at home on a snowy day with a blanket and a bowl of soup in front of the TV. A soft purr made it's way out of his chest as his eyes finally slid closed and he fell into a light slumber.

* * *

When Peter awoke, he could no longer feel the soothing rhythm of the car underneath his body but instead, he felt warm muscle and the steady bouncing that was associated with being carried. Blearily opening his eyes, Peter brought a hand up from where it was dangling in the air to feel around his surroundings in confusion. His hand ended up hitting something warm and solid to the side of him and his eyebrows furrowed as he felt the subtle rumbling of said object. Since when did walls rumble? Or walk for that matter?

He rubbed his eyes and was greeted with the sight of the one and only Harley Keener from a very unflattering angle. As if he could sense what Peter was thinking, he looked down and smirked, his mouth moving but no sound coming out. Peter, in his sleepy haze, tilted his head and furrowed his brow. Why was Harley just mouthing things to him, did they need to be stealthy or something? Looking around, Peter saw their driver from earlier walking ahead of them in the garage filled with cars more expensive than Peter's own life. 

Looking back up at Harley, he flinched back slightly from the puzzled look he was giving Peter. 

"I'm okay," Peter tried to say, but when no sound came out he immediately started to panic. Why was no noise coming out?

His breath came shorter and quicker and it was becoming more of a struggle to breathe, especially with his asthma. He struggled against Harley, pushing against his arms and dropping to the ground. He hastily took a few steps back, attempting to take deeper breaths and ward off the oncoming anxiety attack. He waved his arms around, hoping to convey to Harley that he couldn't hear and he had no clue why. Blinking, he shook as he was suddenly overwhelmed with scents from everywhere, smelling the comforting scent of motor oil from a few stories up.

Something began to drip down from his nose and he hurriedly tried to wipe it away, not wanting to be embarrassed in front of Harley by having a leaky nose. He had already done enough by turning feral in front of him and forcing him to cuddle when he didn't want to. Shoving those thoughts away, Peter wiped at his nose again, absentmindedly noticing that Happy had now stopped too and was watching on with a strange look. He chanced a quick look to his sleeve to make sure the snot wasn't visible but he choked when he saw that instead of snot, it was blood. As if his day wasn't bad enough.

A sudden wave of dizziness had him stumbling forward, grasping blindly for anything to hold on to and ground himself. He hit the ground and he groaned loudly, unknowingly setting off every protective instinct Harley had in his body. He moaned in discomfort again as his broken wing was at an odd angle on his back and the blood continued to pour from his nose. Letting out a weak growl, Peter attempted to swat at the hands that were grabbing at him. Why couldn't they just leave him here to wallow in his pathetic misery?

The offending hands were finally successful in picking him up and positioning him comfortably in someone's arms in a way where it wouldn't put any strain on his wing. That was awfully considerate of them and if Peter could hear himself then he would have thanked them for thinking of it. He could feel the person carrying him begin a fast pace as his head lolled and his vision blurred. Peter was distantly aware of a soothing hand coming to cover his eyes and he was grateful for it as the pressure behind his eyes eased slightly.

A sudden change in direction had Peter sluggishly trying to comprehend what was going on. They were going horizontal one second and suddenly they were going vertical? He could feel the vibrations of something in his head. What was that? 

He must have blacked out because the next moment he was awake, lying on something comfortable. A shout from his left had him snapping his eyes open and grabbing his head in pain. Why was everything so loud now? He couldn't decide whether he liked it better when he couldn't hear or not. A warm hand on his leg had him meeting the beautiful eyes of Harley Keener who was just staring at him.

"Alright suga'?"

"SHHHHH! Stop being so loud Keener," Peter whined, waving his hand in Harley's general direction in a pathetic attempt to get him to shut up.

The alpha frowned again, "I'm not, I'm whisperin'."

The breath was stolen from Peter's lungs as Harley moved his hand from where it had been lying previously on his calf, to his thigh. Peter made an odd, strangled sound in the back of his throat.

"So, uh," Harley continued, removing his hand to scratch the back of his neck, "We called Bruce in-"

"-who's Bruce?-"

"-to take ya blood, and we had a look at it and I'm not gonna lie to ya, there are some pretty startlin' changes. Did ya come in contact with anythin'... weird recently?"

"No," Peter snorted, "I'm not dumb, I wouldn't touch anything I'm not supposed to. Can we stop playing 20 questions for a second and skip to the part where you tell me what exactly is going on with me?"

"We don't know."

Peter blinked at Harley, unsure if he heard that right, "You don't know?" He echoed.

"Yes, we don't know, and until we know what caused this, all we can do is monitor the changes."

"You and this Bruce guy, yeah?"

"And Tony of course, " Harley continued, looking dead serious.

Realisation suddenly dawned on Peter and he could have smacked himself. How did he not work it out sooner? Harley lived with Tony Stark, who lived in the tower with the redeemed Avengers, and one of these Avengers are called Bruce, Bruce Banner. Expert in gamma radiation and one of Peter's heroes, not because he was the Hulk, that was just a side bonus, but because of everything he had done and discovered in the science world. And now he had taken an interest in Peter, and he was beginning to think that spider bite was not as inconsequential as he previously believed.

"A spider bite."

"Sorry?" came the baffled reply.

"At Oscorp, a spider from one of the genetically modified tanks must have escaped and bitten me."

"That would make sense, Bruce said he could see increasin' levels on gamma radiation in ya blood works. Almost as if they were mutatin' themselves. Whether these mutations will be good or bad, we don't know but ya will have to stay here for a while until we find a cure."

That was where Peter drew the line. He knew it was better for his safety but no way could he leave Aunt May all alone in the apartment, and telling her what was happening would only increase her worry on top of everything else he had been through.

"No, I'm not."

Harley's eyes narrowed as his wings drew closer to his body in preparation for a fight, "Stop being so goddamn stubborn, ya need the help."

"I'm not leaving my aunt alone in the apartment, it's not safe!"

"Well, it's a good thing Tony already called ahead and will be bringin' her here."

"He what?!" Peter burst out. He sat up fully in the bed he was lying in wings quivering behind him as he glared at Harley.

"Hey, don't shoot the messenger."

Peter swung his legs over the bed, fully prepared to storm his way out.

"I wouldn't advise that."

Peter just glared back and stood up. Rubbing at his ears again as things got increasingly louder.

The rooms' door swung open and in walked the one and only, Tony Stark. Peter swallowed, his first time meeting his idol and here he was in a hospital gown looking worse than death itself.

"So, this is Peter Parker?" Tony commented, looking him up and down.

Oh god, Tony Stark knew his name.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry this took ages.
> 
> This story will be going on a temporary hiatus until around March until I get my prelims out of the way and then I can focus more on this story and Iron Will. I hope you guys understand.
> 
> Take care of yourselves lovelies, remember you are all valid and I hope you enjoyed this chapter :)


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